CDC changes Covid vaccine guidelines to OK by mixing Pfizer and Moderna photos

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly changed their guidelines for Covid-19 vaccines, saying it’s now okay to mix Pfizer and Moderna features in “exceptional situations” and that it’s also okay to wait. up to six weeks to get the second two-dose vaccination vaccine from any company.

Although Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which use messenger RNA technology, were authorized 21 and 28 days apart, respectively, the agency now says you can get either shot as long as they are given a separation. minimum of 28 days, according to a new guide posted on its website Thursday.

While “every effort” should be made to ensure that a patient receives the same vaccine, in rare situations “any available COVID-19 mRNA vaccine may be administered at a minimum interval of 28 days between doses” – if the supply is limited or the patient does not “I don’t know what vaccine they originally received,” says the new CDC guide.

The CDC says the two products are not interchangeable and has acknowledged that it had not yet studied whether its new recommendations would change the safety or effectiveness of the two vaccines.

The agency said health care providers should give patients a vaccination record card that tells them when they received the first shot and what type of shot it was to help ensure patients knew which shot they should have. to receive the second time. The agency also recommends that providers enter patient vaccination information into their medical records and the government’s vaccination information system.

Both companies require two doses to achieve maximum protection against coronavirus. Although both vaccines should be administered according to the originally recommended guidelines, the CDC said the second dose of vaccine from both companies could be delayed by up to six weeks if necessary.

The updated guidance comes when some cities and counties across the country cancel vaccine appointments because they don’t have as many doses as originally expected.

Wayne County, Michigan, for example, said last week that it would prioritize making sure people who got their first shot get their second shot on time. But the county said it had to cancel nearly 1,400 appointments for people to receive the first shot.

“The intent is not to suggest people do anything different, but to provide clinicians with flexibility for exceptional circumstances,” CDC spokesman Jason McDonald said in an email to CNBC.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Vaccination and Respiratory Disease at the CDC, was asked Friday about the interval in which the two shots should be administered.

“The data we have is about a two-dose vaccine on the recommended schedule, 21 or 28 days,” he said at a virtual event hosted by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and National Public Radio. “Right now, at CDC we agree with what the FDA has said and the FDA has been very clear that we should use the approved regime.”

“It is firmly rooted in science and the available evidence, and to do anything different from that would be not to follow science and potentially not allow us to really realize the full potential of these vaccines,” he added. “So for now, from a CDC perspective, we think it should have two doses on the recommended schedule.”