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Cairo: A third dose may be needed to increase the effectiveness of the Chinese coronavirus vaccine, said an Egyptian member of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine research team.
Ahmed Salman made the claim during a phone-in with “Hadith al-Qahira” (Cairo Talk) hosts Khairy Ramadan and Karima Awad on al-Qahira wa al-Nas channel.
Two doses of any other vaccine are sufficient to protect against coronavirus. But a third dose may be needed to increase the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine, the researcher said.
He said many countries have not adopted the Chinese vaccine for a long time due to a lack of consensus on its effectiveness. Until last week, no final scientific information was available.
No one had any problem taking two doses of different vaccines, but strong side effects of the Chinese vaccine can occur, the researcher warned.
Salman said that since the corona vaccine is now available, each country has the right to choose which one to use.
He said companies working with different vaccines have released their test results, so everything is clear in formulating vaccine policies. In addition to the statistics of vaccine symptoms and all other information is presented, this information will help all countries to choose the appropriate vaccine.
He said 550 million people worldwide have been vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.