Professor involved in world-first Covid vaccine mixing trial explains how it will work
4 February 2021, 19:48 | Updated: 4 February 2021, 19:54
Professor involved in vaccine mixing trial speaks to LBC
Professor involved in world-first vaccine mixing trial speaks to LBC explaining how the process will work.
The Government has announced a new trial to test mixing different types of coronavirus vaccines.
In a world-first, trial participants will be given one vaccine dose followed by a second booster shot of a different vaccine.
LBC's Iain Dale spoke to Professor Saul Faust, Director of the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility, who is involved in the trial.
He reassured listeners that this would not lead to two different vaccine doses being mixed in the same injection.
It comes after the news one in five of all adults in the UK have had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the Health Secretary said, as figures showed half-a-million people were now fully vaccinated.
Matt Hancock said Britain remained on track to complete the vaccination of the top four priority groups by February 15.
It comes as Government data up to February 3 showed that of the 10,992,444 jabs given in the UK so far, 10,490,487 were first doses - a rise of 469,016 on the previous day's figures.
Some 501,957 were second doses, meaning just over half-a-million people were now fully vaccinated.
"Nobody's talking about mixing them in the same vial..."
The study will be run at the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility (CRF) and the University of Oxford's Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine.
Southampton is set to help deliver the vaccine study looking at using different vaccines for first and second doses, and varying the time between doses.
The pioneering study is a national effort - with eight sites across England hosting the trial, each recruiting around 100 volunteers aged 50 and above.
It's impact could be huge - not just here but on a global scale.
The 800 volunteers will be recruited over this month, with initial results expected during the summer.
So far in England, a total of 9,508,006 Covid-19 vaccinations had taken place between December 8 and February 3, according to provisional NHS England data, including first and second doses.
A further 915 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Thursday, according to Government figures, bringing the UK total to 110,250.
Additionally, a further 20,634 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus were recorded, with the UK total standing at 3,892,459.
