The WHO Warned Against Mixing Vaccines By Individuals

Misbar's Editorial Team

Health

14th July 2021

The WHO Warned Against Mixing Vaccines By Individuals

World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan (Ge

The Claim

The World Health Organization stated that mixing vaccines is a dangerous trend.

News posted on

Emerging story

News websites recently reported a statement attributed to the chief scientist of the World Health Organization, Soumya Swaminathan, stating mixing COVID-19 vaccines is a dangerous trend and may lead to a chaotic situation.

A supporting image within the article body

Misbar’s Analysis

Somya Swaminathan warned in her statement against mixing vaccines by individuals and confirmed that this should be up to respective health authorities. Swaminathan corrected the Reuters error in a tweet on her Twitter site, and the agency also corrected the news on its website.

Individuals should not decide for themselves, public health agencies can, based on available data. Data from mix and match studies of different vaccines are awaited - immunogenicity and safety both need to be evaluated https://t.co/3pdYj4LUdz
— Soumya Swaminathan (@doctorsoumya) July 12, 2021

The reason for the selective coverage may be due to the mistake made by Reuters in its headline, in which it said that “WHO warns against mixing vaccines against COVID-19”. The headline did not specify the context, where Swaminathan spoke specifically about individuals rather than the general mixing of different vaccines.