Using two different brands of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine just to complete the required two doses is not recommended according to Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III.
“You would not want to toy with the idea of giving different vaccines for the simple reason that if an adverse event following immunization does happen, or an adverse event of special interest, we are going to struggle to identify which of these two different vaccines must have caused it,” Duque explained in response to Senate President Vicente Sotto III questioning during the Senate Committee of the Whole hearing.
Dr. Lulu Bravo, chairperson of the Philippine Medical Association’s Adhoc Committee on Vaccination, was also against using different Covid-19 vaccines to complete the doses.
“This is not recommended. Interchangeability, that’s what we call it, is actually a no-no because no company will be willing to do a study on that kind of process,” she said.
“Most of the results that we will get, if this will be done will not really be based on standard procedures,” she added.
Currently, only Pfizer-BioNTech has secured emergency use authorization from the Philippine Food and Drug Administration. The result of the EUA application of AstraZeneca is set to be released within the month too. Ronald dela Cruz