Beijing, July 21 While scientists across the globe are debating on the need for a third booster jab against Covid-19 and whether the shots can be mixed, China's top disease control official said he has taken three different shots against the infectious disease, the media reported.
"I was among the first to have a domestically developed Covid-19 vaccine when I got the shot in May last year," the South China Morning Post quoted Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying to state-run magazine Global People.
"I have now had three shots that used different technology and were from different manufacturers and I haven't felt any discomfort," Fu added.
However, the report did not say why Fu took the third jab, and whether it was part of a study.
In April, Fu had called for research into mixing vaccines to try to "resolve the issue that current vaccines don't have very high protection rates", sparking debates on low efficacy of Chinese vaccines.
Chinese scientists have been in a game of "cat and mouse" to test the efficacy of existing vaccines against new variants, Fu said.
"So far, our vaccines have worked, especially in the face of the Delta strain," Fu was quoted as saying to the magazine.
"There is a possibility that the coronavirus vaccines will become closer to being like flu vaccines" and that life could go back to normal after "a certain degree" of pandemic control is reached, he said.
Chinese drug makers are working on updated versions of their vaccines for more transmissible Covid-19 variants like Delta, the SCMP report said.
In June, Sinovac Biotech chairman Yin Weidong last month said early stage human trials had found that antibodies created by its vaccine had "jumped 10 to 20 times" when a third dose was given three or six months.
Sinopharm also confirmed developing a new booster shot, in March, but said further studies were needed.
Globally, many countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Turkey and Indonesia have been offering third booster shots for people who have received Sinopharm and Sinovac jabs. Israel has rolled out a third shot for vulnerable groups, while Britain has announced plans for booster jabs ahead of winter.
Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in a recently released joint statement on vaccine boosters, stated that people who are fully vaccinated are protected from severe illness and death, including from emerging variants such as the highly contagious Delta variant.
"FDA, CDC, and NIH (National Institutes of Health) are engaged in a science-based, rigorous process to consider whether or when a booster might be necessary," said the statement.
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