By Spy Uganda
Kampala: The Ministry of Health through the Director-General of Health Services, Dr Henry Mwebesa, has revealed that it is now fine to mix COVID-19 vaccines and administer booster doses.
This has been revealed in a letter Mwebesa inked responding to the UN that had thought guidance on the administering of booster doses.
Mwebesa says, “The Ministry of Health advises that it is now recommended to administer booster doses of the Covid vaccines to eligible personnel. You may also wish to know that vaccine mixing is now possible.”
Previously, the Ministry had restricted the mixing of vaccines citing lack of safety data as one of the reasons. But in his letter, Dr Mwebesa said those who got Astranecea as the first dose can get Pfizer or Moderna as the second dose.
Earlier, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist has advised individuals against mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines from different manufacturers, saying such decisions should be left to public health authorities.
“It’s a little bit of a dangerous trend here,” Soumya Swaminathan told an online briefing on Monday after a question about booster shots. “It will be a chaotic situation in countries if citizens start deciding when and who will be taking a second, a third and a fourth dose.”
“Individuals should not decide for themselves, public health agencies can be based on available data,” she said in the tweet. “Data from mix and match studies of different vaccines are awaited – immunogenicity and safety both need to be evaluated.”
