The opinions are favorable, also because the vaccination is gradually weakening and there are no health consequences. The last word to the experts of the Scientific Committee, then we need to organize the vaccination machine
The pandemic situation in Italy is worsening, albeit very slowly thanks to the success of the vaccination campaign, but there is a trend towards an increase in the incidence and occupancy rate of beds in the medical and intensive care area. To cope with the situation and avoid delays that would be dangerous, politics is thinking about various options for intervention, includingvaccination obligation for some categories most exposed to the virus (such as teachers, public administration employees and law enforcement agencies) and the hypothesis of a reduction of the interval between the end of the primary vaccination course and the booster dose to 5 months, the third dose.
The expert: only advantages, we must extend it to everyone
In Austria, where the contagion situation is dramatic and the vaccinated population is still low, the government has decided (together with the general lockdown and the vaccination obligation) that the booster can be received after four months.
From a medical point of view a valid option? It certainly does not pose any problems – he answers the Courier service Antonella Viola, immunologist at the University of Padua -. Even for people who still have “high” antibodies, meeting the virus naturally would have the same “booster” effect. There are viruses that we encounter all the time in our life and which constantly stimulate the immune system. The third dose works in the same way. Not a danger. Those people, and not a few, who have exceeded six months from the second dose, for example health professionals or teachers who were vaccinated first and are under 40 years of age, are currently at greater risk, therefore they are currently excluded from the third dose. Boosters should be administered with flexibility: five or six months does not change, but we should open, as in the USA, at all ages to get to include in vaccination enhancement even those who were vaccinated at the beginning.
Many people will receive a different vaccine than the first two administrations. a problem?
No. In the case of Moderna for Pfizer recipients (or vice versa) they are two RNA-based vaccines and work in the same way to stimulate the immune system. And in the case of AstraZeneca (or Johnson & Johnson) it has been seen that receiving a vaccination of another type (heterologous) has stimulated the immune defenses even more.
Opinions on the reduction of times
There is evidence from Israel that the third dose helped not only to strengthen protection against serious or even fatal disease, but also to markedly reduce viral circulation, Franco Locatelli, the coordinator of the Scientific Technical Committee (Cts), explained to Sky TG24.
Shortening the interval a little would have no negative effects and could speed up the vaccination campaign. an element to be evaluated with some attention, the director of Prevention of the Ministry of Health, Gianni Rezza, declared in the press conference on Friday.
more cautious Massimo Andreoni, head of Infectious Disease at the Tor Vergata Polyclinic in Rome: A little caution would be better and not to change the rules in the course of work – he declares to time.news -. For some categories, I am thinking of the over 80 or the frail, one can think of anticipating the third dose even after 5 months, because in some cases the antibody response may be weak and a necessary recall. But it is not a general rule that can apply to everyone. Then he specified: I clarify that from a clinical point of view, a non-risky one month advance, but it could mean giving a third dose to someone who still has a very high antibody response.
How much vaccination effectiveness drops
The Undersecretary for Health, Andrea Costa anticipates to Ansa: If the scientific evidence tells us that it is better to anticipate by a month, we will be ready. We must wait with confidence the indications that our scientific community will give ushe adds. The problem seems not so much medical as it is bureaucratic, also because it would be a question of having immediately available the doses of the vaccine and the sites where to administer them.
According to the extended surveillance report of the Higher Institute of Health (ISS), which completes the weekly monitoring, the protection determined by the anti-Covid vaccine for those vaccinated for more than 6 months it drops from 95% to 82%. After 6 months from the completion of the vaccination cycle – says the ISS – one is observed sharp decrease in vaccination efficacy in preventing the diagnosis of positivity in correspondence of all age groups.
This is an average: vaccination protection begins to gradually decline even before six months and at the end of the sixth month (from the end of the first vaccination cycle) it reaches different efficacy values depending on the vaccines and the studies that have evaluated them. For AstraZeneca it ranges from a decrease in efficacy (on symptomatic infections) at 6 months estimated between 44% and 47.3%, for Pfizer from 41% to 69.7%, for Moderna from 58% to 72%.
The country that can give the best answers with respect to the efficacy of the third dose is always Israel, the first of all the Western ones to have started the vaccination campaign almost a year ago: the efficacy that regains vaccine protection after significant recall, in some cases not it only bridges the decline that occurs over time, but reaches higher efficacy values than before and could last, this time, more than 6 months: one thinks of 9-10 months, perhaps more.
November 20, 2021 (change November 20, 2021 | 15:54)
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