Experts Advise Against Mixing Vaccines

Health experts on Saturday advised people not to mix Covid jabs from different manufacturers, after the government suspended the BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday due to packaging problems.

Over 150,000 people, who have already had their first BioNTech jab, now face uncertainty over their second dose.

Asked whether people inoculated with a single dose of BioNTech should now switch to the Sinovac jab, Professor Wallace Lau - the convenor of a government-appointed advisory panel on Covid vaccines - said he did not encourage mixing.

“There is no serious scientific data about mixed vaccines for now. So we should not be recommending people to use mixed vaccines. I understand that some studies are ongoing, so we should wait for those results before telling people whether it’s okay to get a second dose,” he said.

But he said, while some data suggested it was best to have the second BioNTech shot 21 days after the first, there was also data showing that effectiveness wouldn’t be greatly affected if the second dose were administered six weeks later.

He said he hoped an investigation by BioNTech into the packaging problems wouldn’t take longer than three weeks.

Meanwhile another member of the advisory panel, Dr Thomas Tsang, also told a radio programme that he would not recommend mixing.

He said local and overseas studies into the matter were still at their initial stages, and it would be safer for people to get two doses of the same vaccine.