While getting his second COVID-19 vaccine this week, a New Hampshire man accidentally received a dose of Pfizer, despite his first dose being from Moderna. Officials, however, say the man will be fine and he does not need any additional shots at this time.
“He said, ‘You ready for a poke?’ I said, ‘Sure,’ and he poked me,” Craig Richards told Manchester’s WMUR News 9. “As soon as he poked me, he looked down at my card, and I think he realized he just gave me the Pfizer,” he said.
“I looked at him and said, ‘You did not just give me the wrong shot.’ And he bolted!” Richards said.
“I don’t know if I had a real angry face on,” he said.
A few moments later, the man’s supervisor approached Richards to discuss what happened. He reassured him that, despite the error, he would be just fine.
“‘You’re going to be fine. The good news is, you are fully vaccinated,’ ” Richards said the supervisor told him.
However, Richards was still a little scared and upset.
“I’m just, like, ‘This isn’t happening,’ ” he said he told the supervisor.
New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services released a statement confirming what that supervisor had told Richards.
“A mixed series is safe, as (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidance recommends mixing the series if the brand from the first dose is not available at the second dose,” their statement said. “While there have not been any clinical studies on whether a mixed series is as effective as a complete series, it will still provide enough protection that a third dose is not necessary or recommended.”
CDC guidelines state that “The safety and efficacy of a mixed-product series have not been evaluated. Both doses of the series should be completed with the same product. However, if two doses of different mRNA COVID-19 vaccine products are administered in these situations (or inadvertently), no additional doses of either product are recommended at this time.”
Richards says that he is still anxious about the incident.
“With everything going on with Johnson & Johnson being pulled, you go home and you’re uneasy about the whole thing,” he said. “They screwed up. Something is wrong over there.”
Quote: “‘You’re going to be fine. The good news is, you are fully vaccinated,’…” Really? There have been no testing done to determine if the different vaccines are compatible. Guess it is better than the empty shots given out by others.