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

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly changed their guidelines for Covid-19 vaccination shots, saying it’s now okay to mix the Pfizer and Moderna shots in “ exceptional situations, ” and it’s okay to wait up to six weeks too for the second shot of immunization with two doses from both companies.

Although Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines, both of which use Messenger RNA technology, were allowed to be separated 21 and 28 days, respectively, the agency now says you can have both injections as long as they are given at least 28 days apart , according to new guidelines posted on its website Thursday.

While “every effort” must be made to ensure that a patient receives the same vaccine, in rare situations “any available mRNA COVID-19 vaccine may be administered with 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 got, says the new guideline from the CDC.

The CDC says the two products are not interchangeable and acknowledged that it had not yet investigated whether the new recommendations would change the safety or effectiveness of either vaccine.

The agency said healthcare providers should provide patients with a vaccination report telling them when they received their first injection and what type of injection it was, to make sure patients know which injection they should receive the second time. The agency also recommends health care providers enter the patient’s vaccination data into their medical records and the government’s immunization information system.

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

The updated guidelines come because some cities and counties across the country are canceling vaccine appointments because they don’t have as many doses as they originally expected.

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

“The intention is not to propose people to do something different, but to give clinicians flexibility for exceptional circumstances,” Jason McDonald, a CDC spokesperson, said in an email to CNBC.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, was asked Friday about the interval at which the two injections should be administered.

“The data we have is on a two-dose vaccine on the recommended schedule, 21 or 28 days,” she said at a virtual event hosted by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and National Public Radio. “At this point, we at CDC agree with what the FDA has said and the FDA has been very clear that we should be using the approved regimen.”

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