“We have no controlled studies at the moment, so we must be cautious in drawing firm conclusions” on the fourth dose of the anti-Covid vaccine. Luca Pani, former director general of the Italian drug agency Aifa, now a lecturer at the University of Miami in the States and Modena in Italy, marries the line of waiting in this phase, who among other things highlights the need to work on a evolution of current vaccines.
Just today the Italian regulatory body expressed itself in this direction, with the Technical Scientific Commission (Cts) which highlighted the need for “further investigations”, starting today the evaluation of the advisability of a second booster dose for particular categories of subjects. . “What we know – explains Pani, consulted by time.news Salute – is that the fourth dose based on mRna vaccines against Covid-19 restores the antibody titers to the peak levels that were seen after the third dose. However, given that the antibody levels do not directly correlate with the protection of the infection, although this positive response means little from a clinical point of view. In fact, the IV dose has little efficacy in preventing mild or asymptomatic infections from the Omicron “variant of Sars-CoV- 2 “and the infectious potential of the cases that still manage to emerge (the so-called ‘breaktrhough infections’) remains important”.
All this, concludes the expert, “signals the urgency of developing new generation anti-Covid vaccines aimed at the variants of interest rather than rushing to make a fourth dose of the already existing mRna vaccines. In these conditions the fourth dose does not it seems to me suitable for the general population, while it should be taken into consideration for high-risk populations such as the immunosuppressed, the elderly and probably for all health personnel who must protect the patients they visit, especially in anticipation of the next autumn / winter season ” .