Thread by @DrEricDing

Top question asked right now: what to do about J&J 1-shot #COVID19 vaccine & rise of #DeltaVariant? Not medical advice: lots of immunologists are hypothesizing & predicting mixing vaccines of different types could yield equal/better response. Trials TBD.🧵
bloombergquint.com/coronavirus-ou…

2) “If you can mix and match, it’s going to look better, something that immunologists have known for decades” said Danny Altmann, professor of immunology. “I’d bet my house on working hypothesis that it’s doable and would produce immunity that’s at least as good if not better.”

3) “After years of reading research on mixing vaccine types -- known as heterologous prime-boosting -- Morgon concluded that getting one dose of the AstraZeneca shot, and another from Moderna Inc.’s or Pfizer Inc.’s newer messenger RNA technology would pack the most punch.”

4) “For now, taking 2 different shots is likely to remain the exception rather than the rule, as some countries explore the approach. France, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Norway, & Canada are mixing vaccines or considering it among some age groups who’d had Astra shot for first dose”

5) “Early research appears to back the approach. A study of almost 700 people in Spain showed that those who received a second dose of Pfizer’s vaccine after a first Astra shot saw their neutralizing antibodies climb sevenfold, significantly higher than two Astra doses.”

6) “A small trial in Germany suggested that mixing Astra and Pfizer shots could trigger antibody responses almost four times higher than a two-dose course of the Pfizer vaccine” medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

7) “In the U.S., the NIH recently launched a trial to evaluate the method in humans, suggesting an approval for the general population could still be several months away. One drawback is that the approach appears to cause more side effects such as fevers, chills and headaches”

8) “Because AZ shot isn’t yet approved in U.S., Enright got Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, which uses similar technology but is intended for a one-dose regimen. He followed up 3 months later with dose of the vaccine developed by Pfizer, & didn’t have any significant side effects.”

9) “They asked ‘why are you getting a booster?’ And I said ‘this is what I do for a living.’ And they said, ‘ok,’” said Enright. “I think we’ll get a stronger immune response, a stronger protection against existing and variant strains and likely a longer immunity.”