U.K begins ‘mix & match’ COVID-19 vaccine trials
Luke Grants speaks with Paul Hunter, Professor of medicine & lead researcher at the University of East Anglia, regarding Britain beginning the world’s first trial to explore “mixing and matching” vaccines by using a group of 800 over 50-year-old volunteers in the hope that it could minimise supply problems in the UK and abroad.
The vaccine group is looking at data to see whether there were any hints of improved immunity; however the real advantage will be flexibility with a possibility that mixing might produce a better response.
Professor Hunter says that his team had seen COVID case numbers rise for eight days after the initial jab, possibly caused by “people being less cautious about maintaining protective behaviours as soon as they have the injection”.
While effectiveness stayed almost zero for two weeks, “after day 14, immunity rose to about 90 per cent at day 21 and then did not improve further”.
He adds: “All the observed improvement was before any second injection. This shows that a single dose of vaccine is highly protective, although it can take up to 21 days to achieve this.”
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