The push continues to get more COVID-19 booster shots into arms across Windsor-Essex, but some residents are choosing to hold off as they don't want to mix vaccine brands.
Current rules from the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit state those under the age of 30 will get the Pfizer vaccine while those over 30 with no preferential dose will be given the Moderna vaccine if Pfizer is not available.
But acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Shanker Nesathurai says mRNA vaccines can be mixed and all provide a high level of protection against COVID-19 and the Omicron variant.
He says there is a shortage of Pfizer at the moment.
"At the current time, there's a relative scarcity of the Pfizer product, but with more than sufficient stock of the Moderna product. It's not unusual in public health practice, in clinical practice to have different manufacturer's products being used for vaccination and it's happened in the past and it's likely to happen in the future."
Dr. Nesathurai says mixing vaccines is no reason to not get your booster.
"The most important thing is to get your vaccination. We know that people that are vaccinated are less likely to get sick. They're less likely to get infected. They're less likely to transmit the illness to other people and if you do get infected and you're vaccinated, you're unlikely to be hospitalized or die."
He says the more boosters that are administered the better off we all are.
"That helps not only you, the person getting vaccinated, but it also helps the community because it preserves hospital resources for other people. So getting one mRNA vaccine or another, they're equally acceptable approaches to vaccination."
Locally, more than 751,000 vaccine doses have been administered with 78% of residents fully vaccinated.