File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By The Canadian Press

COVID-19

Pfizer, Moderna vaccines now preferred second dose for AstraZeneca recipients: NACI

Jun 17, 2021 | 1:57 PM

OTTAWA — The National Advisory Committee on Immunization says it is now recommending people who got the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine first should get Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna for their second shot.

NACI had previously said AstraZeneca recipients could choose whether to get a second dose of the same vaccine, or an mRNA vaccine.

But in new guidance released Thursday, NACI says Pfizer or Moderna are now “preferred” as the second dose.

The guidance is based on growing evidence that a second dose of an mRNA vaccine produces a stronger immune response, and because of the low but serious risk of vaccine-induced blood clots associated with getting AstraZeneca.

The advice doesn’t mean people can’t still choose AstraZeneca if they want, or if they are allergic to the mRNA vaccines.

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NACI’s advice says “People who received two doses of AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD vaccine can rest assured that the vaccine provides good protection against infection and very good protection against severe disease and hospitalization.”

As of June 5th, 2.1 million Canadians had received one dose of AstraZeneca, and 15,186 had received two doses.

There are no further shipments of AstraZeneca scheduled, but there are still about half a million doses of it in provinces.

There are 14 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna being delivered this week and next, including a donation of one million doses of

Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine from the United States that arrived in Canada on Thursday.

The donated doses are part of an American promise to donate 80-million doses of vaccines by the end of June.