ASEAN HEADLINES- COVID VAX: MANILA- Brands for booster shot named

The Department of Health (DOH) has approved the recommendation of an experts’ panel for COVID-19 booster shots for senior citizens, immunocompromised individuals and health care workers.Those who have been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine should get a Pfizer booster shot, while those jabbed with the Janssen vaccine should get a Janssen booster shot.But for those who received vaccines from AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Moderna, the preferred booster shot is Pfizer, although the same brand may also be given as a booster.“The bottomline is that the booster shot should be the same platform or homologous, as much as possible,” said Dr. Consorcia Lim Quizon of the Department of Health’s National Immunization Technical Advisory Group. “So if you got Pfizer, Sinovac, whatever, it’s the same booster that you’re supposed to get.”She added, however, that the government may allow the mixing of vaccine jabs and booster shots from different brands because research has already been done on this, and a particular brand may not be available.