• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Have You Mixed Covid Vaccines? Please Share Your Experience

Guwop2

Senior Member
Messages
227
There is some data made available by a poll organised on the HealthRising Forum with regards to Covid Vaccines and their effects on M.E sufferers (view it here), but the poll was organised prior to the still emerging practice of mixing vaccines, and therefore doesn't include any data in that direction. My interest comes after personally showing signs of not being able to tolerate a first dose of Astra Zenica and seeing from the data in the HealthRising poll that many who took the first Aztra Zenica Dose did not take the second, perhaps for similar interolerance reasons as myself. Perhaps you're one of them, and perhaps you even had the chance to take a different one for your second. If so it may be useful for other forum members to here about your experience of mixing vaccines.

Im not endorsing mixing vaccines, im 100% in the dark about their potential real-life effects for M.E sufferers, though in the 'normal' and 'healthy' populace they have been reported as being very effective. I dont want to encourage anyone to experiment with mixing vaccines, but if by chance you have already done this, then I think it could be useful to others to know why you chose to mix them, and what you found the experience to be like.

EDIT:
A single study currently exists on mixing Vaccines: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-06-2...generate-robust-immune-response-against-covid

Canada Recommend mixing vaccines: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/cana...nes-astrazeneca-pfizer-moderna-naci-1.6048152
 
Last edited:

Viala

Senior Member
Messages
639
I've never heard about mixing covid vaccines before, it's a recent thing and from what I've read, manufacturers discouraged people to do it. Do you know any studies where it is proven to be effective? Which mixed covid vaccines have been studied? We still don't know much about them and their possible long term influence, mixing two different one seems like increasing the risk.
 

Guwop2

Senior Member
Messages
227
I've never heard about mixing covid vaccines before, it's a recent thing and from what I've read, manufacturers discouraged people to do it. Do you know any studies where it is proven to be effective? Which mixed covid vaccines have been studied? We still don't know much about them and their possible long term influence, mixing two different one seems like increasing the risk.

The only study I'm aware of is this one, that looks at having a Pfizer after having a first Astra Zenica vaccine. I agree with it being risky for sure without more data. After having an awful time with Aztra Zenica, i have considered getting a different second vaccine.

Canada seem to also being adopting mixing vaccines, so maybe some Candians here have already done it. My Doctor here in teh U.K offered a Pfizer to me after my bad response with Astra Zenica.
 

Viala

Senior Member
Messages
639
The only study I'm aware of is this one, that looks at having a Pfizer after having a first Astra Zenica vaccine. I agree with it being risky for sure without more data. After having an awful time with Aztra Zenica, i have considered getting a different second vaccine.

Canada seem to also being adopting mixing vaccines, so maybe some Candians here have already done it. My Doctor here in teh U.K offered a Pfizer to me after my bad response with Astra Zenica.

From what I see the study participants in that Lancet preprint article were aged 50, mean age 58, so not much info how it affects younger people. The information here is that mixing generates a stronger immune response than to Astra Zeneca itself, so maybe that's not that good considering some people react too strongly and have troubling side effects from it? These studies are still very new, so no information about long term side effects.
 

Guwop2

Senior Member
Messages
227
From what I see the study participants in that Lancet preprint article were aged 50, mean age 58, so not much info how it affects younger people. The information here is that mixing generates a stronger immune response than to Astra Zeneca itself, so maybe that's not that good considering some people react too strongly and have troubling side effects from it? These studies are still very new, so no information about long term side effects.

The fact that the immune response is described as being more robust with mixing 2 worries me too, this is indeed what the troubling side-effects may be constituent of. It is too early to tell whether it's safe for us I agree, and hopefully anyone considering it/being offered it come here and can at least see some people talking about it and make an informed decision.
 

Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
5,684
Location
Alberta
When I made the appointment for my second vaccine, I had the choice of a second Pfizer, or the Moderna. I did think about it for quite a while,: would a different 2nd dose be more likely to cause ME problems than a booster of the first one? Since i couldn't find any information on that, I went with the Moderna because the waiting list was shorter. No problems from it.

and from what I've read, manufacturers discouraged people to do it.

Well of course they recommend against using the competition's product. ;)
 

Oberon

Senior Member
Messages
214
The only study I'm aware of is this one, that looks at having a Pfizer after having a first Astra Zenica vaccine. I agree with it being risky for sure without more data. After having an awful time with Aztra Zenica, i have considered getting a different second vaccine.

Canada seem to also being adopting mixing vaccines, so maybe some Candians here have already done it. My Doctor here in teh U.K offered a Pfizer to me after my bad response with Astra Zenica.

Being in Canada has been interesting in terms of vaccinations to say the least.

First we started getting a large supply of Pfizer and a lot less Moderna so a lot of Canadians got Pfizer for their first dose.

Then Pfizer had large supply delays and Moderna vastly ramped up their supply so we had a lot of Canadians getting Moderna for their second dose instead of Pfizer since Canada did not want to slow down the pace of vaccination.

Also anyone who got Astrazeneca first was actively encouraged to get Pfizer or Moderna second including our prime minister who I believe got Astrazeneca then Moderna. This was due to the blood clot concerns of Astrazeneca relative to the MRNA vaccines. The reality is there isn't enough research yet to fully support mixed doses, but our government and scientists felt confident enough in mixing doses that they quite literally had millions of people do it.

Personally if I had Astrazeneca first I would go mixed dose to Pfizer or Moderna simply because there's a lower risk of side effects in the MRNA vaccines and there's a reasonable chance for a higher efficacy rate in mixed vs double Astrazeneca.
 

Guwop2

Senior Member
Messages
227
Being in Canada has been interesting in terms of vaccinations to say the least.

First we started getting a large supply of Pfizer and a lot less Moderna so a lot of Canadians got Pfizer for their first dose.

Then Pfizer had large supply delays and Moderna vastly ramped up their supply so we had a lot of Canadians getting Moderna for their second dose instead of Pfizer since Canada did not want to slow down the pace of vaccination.

Also anyone who got Astrazeneca first was actively encouraged to get Pfizer or Moderna second including our prime minister who I believe got Astrazeneca then Moderna. This was due to the blood clot concerns of Astrazeneca relative to the MRNA vaccines. The reality is there isn't enough research yet to fully support mixed doses, but our government and scientists felt confident enough in mixing doses that they quite literally had millions of people do it.

Personally if I had Astrazeneca first I would go mixed dose to Pfizer or Moderna simply because there's a lower risk of side effects in the MRNA vaccines and there's a reasonable chance for a higher efficacy rate in mixed vs double Astrazeneca.

Very interesting, thanks for this account of things there. How was your reaction to the vaccine, and which one did you get? As mentioned above, I’m scared of exacerbating an already severe immune response with a the vax combo since it may produce and even more ‘effective’ (i.e exteme) reaction..but I can only speculate/fear it at present
 

Viala

Senior Member
Messages
639
Well of course they recommend against using the competition's product. ;)

That's a dangerous assumption, considering that there may be serious side effects from doing this. These vaccines are something new, mixing two entirely new products which we still don't know much about sounds like another gamble. Truth is some vaccines have been taken off the market after many years of testing and implementing them in different countries, because after some time they discovered too many serious side effects. Whether we like it or not, covid vaccs are still in a test phase, we will have a good idea how they work within 5 to 10 years. Of course it is for each of us to decide what is a safer option.
 

Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
5,684
Location
Alberta
I’m scared of exacerbating an already severe immune response with a the vax combo since it may produce and even more ‘effective’ (i.e exteme) reaction..but I can only speculate/fear it at present

Yes, but the problem is that there's effectively zero evidence to assist with making that decision. Furthermore, not getting vaccinated runs the risk of severe ME reactions to the virus, and/or adding long-Covid on top of ME. I think this fits in the category of "Damned if you do, damned if you don't."

An additional bad result of delaying getting the vaccine due to fears: the stress might make your ME worse, and even push you into a deep, long crash.

I pondered the options and decided to get the vaccine reasonably early, despite being very low risk due to living alone in the woods. The deciding factor was that the sooner Alberta reached 70% first vaccinated, the sooner restrictions would lift, which would be good for society. Choosing Modera over a second Pfizer was really just a coin flip, since there isn't any statistical data to bias it one way or the other.
 

Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
5,684
Location
Alberta
That's a dangerous assumption, considering that there may be serious side effects from doing this.

I was just pointing out that the manufacturers have a financial motive for recommending against mixing vaccines. If they had actual statistical data against mixing vaccines, they could easily provide that, and they would be motivated to make it appear as dire as possible. If they had any real data to support mixing vaccines, I would expect them to hide that data and possibly to attempt to misdirect studies that might confirm it, or try to influence public perceptions about it.

I'm not saying that mixing vaccines is good or bad; I'm saying that there's no real data available yet to base a decision on. Mixing vaccines might turn out to be better or worse, once proper statistical evidence is accumulated. However, decisions have to be made now, based on available data. Finding out 30 years from now that it causes problems doesn't change the decisions that need to be made today.

A lot of bad decisions were made in the past: asbestos, pesticides, herbicides, and various drugs all turned out to be proved dangerous ... many decades later. At the time though, they were heralded as miracles, safely solving existing problems. A lot of lives were eventually ruined by them, but a lot of lives were saved or improved from them too.

Hindsight is wonderful, but not all that useful. :meh:
 

andyguitar

Moderator
Messages
6,595
Location
South east England
I’m scared of exacerbating an already severe immune response with a the vax combo since it may produce and even more ‘effective’ (i.e exteme) reaction..but I can only speculate/fear it at present
As far as i'm aware the reason for mixing vaccines is to get a "better" immune response. Better meaning more potent. Which would'nt be "better" if your immune system over reacted to the first shot. The other proposed benefit of mixing vaccines is to get better protection against variants.
 

nina22

Senior Member
Messages
174
I got Pfizer first and Moderna second. I had no bad reaction, just one day of flu symptoms, which is normal. My mother has fibromyalgia and ended up getting Moderna and then AstraZeneca and it was the same for her, just a sore arm for a day. For me the risk of Covid-19 seemed far worse than any risk of mixing, in fact I think mixing vaccines makes you more immune. I think the real risk is that some more severe CFS people might have a stronger PEM reaction. But I didn’t experience anything like that. Plus it drastically cut my anxiety over going out in public.