More than 700 people have volunteered to join a research project, initiated by Thailand’s well known virologist Dr. Yong Poovorawan, of the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University, to study the immune response and safety of mixed COVID-19 inoculation, using AstraZeneca and Sinovac.

In his Facebook post today (Saturday), Dr. Yong thanked all the volunteers for their enthusiasm, saying that, just six hours after the call for volunteers, more than 700 people had applied.

He said, however, that he has sought permission, from the Ethical Committee, to conduct the research on just 90 volunteers.

“I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the cooperation of all the people who have joined all the research projects,” said Dr. Yong, adding that the research on the mixed use of the two vaccines is intended to determine the immune response to the combination of the two vaccines and its safety, so that it can be put into practice if the research is successful.

Doctors normally do not recommend different vaccines for the first and second doses but, in some cases, where a person develops serious side effects after being given one make of vaccine for the first dose, the use of a different vaccine for the second dose is recommended.

Alternatively, in case of a shortage of one kind of vaccine after the first doses, the use of a different kind of vaccine for the second doses is acceptable.

Hence, comprehensive research on the mixed use of vaccines is necessary, before it is put into practice, according to the COVID-19 Data Centre.

Study on a handful of cases of people who received two different makes of vaccine, Sinovac and AstraZeneca, show a significant immune response to the disease.