German vaccine experts: No risks in vaccine switch after first AstraZeneca dose

BERLIN -- Germany's vaccine advisory committee sees no disadvantages or risks from giving younger recipients of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine a second dose of an alternative shot, two of its members said on Wednesday.

"Nobody expects from an immunological perspective that there will be a disadvantage to getting a second dose of another vaccine," Marianne Roebl-Mathieu, a member of the standing committee on vaccinations, told an online briefing.

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Studies involving mixing vaccine doses are underway.

The German committee recommended last week that people aged under 60 who had received one shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine should get a second dose of another vaccine following reports of rare blood clotting events.

Should a second dose prove ineffective, a third dose could be effective, added Roeble Mathieu. Her colleague on the panel, Christian Bogdan, said he had seen no evidence linking other vaccines to the rare blood clotting disorders.

(Reporting by Douglas Busvine, Editing by John Miller)

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  A vial of some of the first 500,000 of the two million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses that Canada has secured through a deal with the Serum Institute of India in partnership with Verity Pharma at a facility in Milton, Ont., on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Carlos Osorio – POOL