2023-08-31 14:12:00
Updated Thursday, August 31, 2023 – 14:12
The coronavirus “has come to stay” and is heading towards the post-pandemic phase, according to experts
A child receives the vaccine against CovidEM.Salud The CSIC transfers to the WHO its advances in the development of the Covid-19 vaccine so that it reaches developing countries Health Children from six months to five years old, called to be vaccinated against the flu for the first time in all of Spain
Virologists and pediatricians, vaccine experts, have indicated that this fall flu and Covid vaccination will not be widespreadsince both are “complementary” although they have “small differences”.
Thus, on the one hand, they recommend vaccinating against seasonal flu to “all” children between six months and five years, being the age group that suffers the most from this infection. And, on the other, they have indicated that the coronavirus vaccine will be directed only at “target populations”, those that present risk factors, such as age or previous pathologies.
That’s how he explained it Ral Ortiz de Lejarazu, scientific adviser and emeritus director of the National Influenza Center of Valladolidalong with David Moreno, coordinator of the Covid Vaccination Program in Andalusia and vaccine adviser to the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, and Ignacio Salamanca, coordinator of the Studies and Research Unit of the Seville Institute of Pediatrics.
The three have appeared before the media on the occasion of their participation in the ‘IX Meeting of updating and new approaches in vaccines. Changes in vaccination programs after two years of the Covid pandemic, which is taught at the Menndez Pelayo International University.
The director of the Flu Center and the UIMP course has pointed out that unlike Covid, “the flu kills healthy children”since, depending on the severity of the virus and the condition it causes, each year between nine and fourteen children and adolescents die, without “half” of them presenting previous risk factors.
Hence, he recalled, the recommendation made in this regard by the World Health Organization more than a decade ago, explaining that the flu “is not a disease of the elderly”.
At this point, they have compared that while the flu virus infects three out of ten minors, it only affects 10% of those over 18 years of age, although in those over 65 it can cause death.
And after noting that flu and covid vaccination are “parallel” but not “the same”Ortiz has indicated that the doses against the coronavirus are intended for the elderly and vulnerable, as well as health workers, as the WHO itself has prioritized this year, which represents a “deficit” in a “vaccinating” country like Spain. .
The virologist has explained that between 75% and 80% of the population in rich countries have immunity against Covid, due to having had the virus, having received the vaccine or both at the same time, which is why now It is recommended to apply it only to target populationslike older people.
And it is that as he has warned, age is a risk factor, since after the age of 65, mortality among those who are infected increases by 1.5% every five years, so these people should not have “no doubt” when vaccinated.
This pediatrician also recommends vaccinating against Covid to people who present pathologies such as congenital immunodeficiency or are undergoing treatments such as chemotherapy.
COVID FOR LIFE
As for the pandemic itself, Ortiz has indicated that the acute phase of it has passed and is heading towards the post-pandemic phase, although this virus “has come to stay all our lives”since eradicating those that affect humans is “difficult”.
However, his forecast for a decade from now is that it “probably” is more adapted to our species, as well as vaccines, and will have its “affected niche”.
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