WHO warns vs vaccine mix-matching

‘Booster plan of rich nations, pharma firms driven by greed’

GENEVA – The World Health Organization’s chief scientist on Monday advised against people mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines from different manufacturers, calling it a “dangerous trend” since there was little data available about the health impact.

“It’s a little bit of a dangerous trend here. We are in a data-free, evidence-free zone as far as mix and match,” Soumya Swaminathan told an online briefing.

“It will be a chaotic situation in countries if citizens start deciding when and who will be taking a second, a third and a fourth dose,” Swaminathan said.

Also, at a press conference, the World Health Organization blasted the senseless “greed” of rich countries considering COVID-19 booster vaccinations while the most vulnerable in other nations were left exposed to the virus.

Striking an increasingly exasperated tone, the WHO said the world would look back on itself with shame if it knowingly chose to leave the world’s weakest at the mercy of the pandemic.

The UN’s health agency also scolded vaccine manufacturers prioritizing deals for booster third doses rather than first and second shots for the completely unvaccinated health care workers and elderly people in poorer nations.