[Sharon]

Reflection question: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused health care professionals to critically examine evidence of current best practices. There has been discussion about ‘pooling’ residual COVID-19 vaccine from several vials to obtain a full dose. Does this meet current best practice? Explain why or why not?

[Josephine]

I think it does not meet the current best practice, the vial, and its contents must be discarded, and there should not be pooling from multiple vials to make up a full dose, because if a vial that the healthcare provider uses is contaminated then this can contaminate others. this can lead to potential disease transmission.

[Carmen]

I agree! Safety should always be the top priority, and using potentially contaminated vials or mixing from multiple ones can definitely increase the risk of disease transmission.

[Carmen]

THis does not meet current best practices. As we learned from this lesson, it can increase the risk of transmission for bacteria and blood-borne pathogens. The vials might be from different batches, and their contents might not be identical. They could have different expiry dates, which means one might not be as effective. Plus, there’s no way to be sure if they were stored or handled correctly, so it’s safer to stick to the standard dosing protocols to ensure you’re getting the full, safe dose. Mixing and matching just adds too much uncertainty and risk.

[Patrice]

I completely agree, because when we mix vials there is a chance of bacteria and pathogens spreading. It’s safer to follow the standard dosing guidelines for a complete and secure dose.

[Patrice]

Even though healthcare professionals are reevaluating their practices due, to the impact of COVID-19, I think it’s true that The idea of combining vaccine doses from vials might not align with the recommended approach as it could potentially compromise the effectiveness or safety of the vaccine.

[Olusola]

Hi Patrice,
The effectiveness you touched on is really key. An ineffective vaccine is as bad as a no vaccine. And ineffectiveness may arise from say incomplete calculation of a full dose emanating from pooling from different vials to form just one dose. We might even have a case of the total quantity arrive at to be too much than recommended.

[Olusola]

The novelty of COVID 19 caused many uproars and possible diversion from usual practices, however, I believe this idea does not conform to safety on different levels. There’s a high risk of contamination and transmission of infection from multiples vials being pooled. There’s also a chance that different vials have different expiry date or were not opened at the same time, hence should be discarded at different times.

These are some of the reasons I don’t think this is such a good idea.

[Author]

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