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Questions Answered | Can you mix, match COVID-19 vaccines

Betty Schaeffer is a viewer with a good question. Is it okay to mix the vaccines?

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It's a good question.  Betty Schaeffer wants to know if it's okay to mix the vaccines?  One from Pfizer and one from Moderna?

The answer was the CDC did not recommend that. So....no!

But the CDC has recently shifted its recommendation a bit. 

We took Betty's question to Dr. Mohammed Reza, an Infectious Disease specialist in Jacksonville. 

He says, "There are circumstances where you could mix it, if that's needed. But that's for the exception and not the rule." 

What could an exception be? 

  •  Trouble with the vaccine supply... a shortage from one company in your area  (We've all seen the terrible winter storms delaying shipments now.)
  • Somebody moves from one place to another 
  • Someone forgets which shot  they had  the first time 
  • A person loses the vaccination card and for some reason no record of it can be located  

But is mixing safe? 

Dr. Reza says, "We don't have actual date from what happens if we mix the vaccines."  But, he says in theory it would seem okay.

Credit: Reza

"They work the same way," he says. 

"There is no live or dead virus in these vaccines," Dr. Reza says. "What they are doing is giving you a little recipe. That messenger RNA is that cookbook recipe says, hey, make this spike protein."

Credit: CDC

Despite that, Dr. Reza says the bottom line is, if you can, stick with one company or the other.

Don't mix Pfizer with Moderna, unless absolutely necessary. 

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