ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP) — The COVID-19 vaccines available so far require two shots, and health officials say the doses should be the same kind. In the U.S., health officials say the vaccines are not interchangeable. Officials in England also say the doses should be consistent. But in the rare event that the same kind isn’t available, English officials say it’s OK to give whichever vaccine is available for the second shot. They say a mismatched dose is better than partial protection. But without any studies, experts say vaccine doses should not be mixed.

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Ted S. Warren/AP
Vials used by pharmacists to prepare syringes used on the first day of a first-stage safety study clinical trial of the potential vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, rest on a lab table at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle on Monday, March 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

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