ROMA. It was issued from the Ministry of Health the “Update” circular of the CTS opinion on vaccines. The circular, signed by the Director of Prevention of the ministry Gianni Rezza, indicates that AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria vaccine is being administered only to people aged 60 or over (full cycle)“For people who have received the first dose of this vaccine and are under 60 years of age, it reads,” the course must be completed with a second dose of mRNA vaccine (Comirnaty or Moderna), to be administered to 8-12 weeks after the first dose “.
There are about 900 thousand Italians under 60 who have had the first dose of vaccine with Astrazeneca and now they will have to carry out the booster with Pfizer O Modern. The recalls, as clarified in the circular of the Ministry of Health, will be made respecting the time frame initially foreseen for Astrazeneca, therefore 8-12 weeks after the first dose.
The vaccine Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) single-dose “is recommended, also in the light of what is defined by the Aifa Technical Scientific Commission, for subjects over the age of 60. If specific situations arise in which the advantageous conditions of the single administration are evident and in the absence of other options , the Janssen vaccine should preferentially be used, subject to the opinion of the territorially competent Ethics Committee “. This is evidenced by the minutes of the Scientific Technical Committee of 11 June, attached to the circular of the Ministry of Health Updating the CTS opinion on vaccines.
While taking into account the similarities between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Janssen (J&J) vaccine, both for the platforms used and the type of thromboembolic events reported, “the current state of knowledge (which suggests a risk associated with adenovirus) , the number of just over one million doses administered in the country and the rarity of reports of rare thrombotic events currently available, do not allow us to draw conclusive assessments with respect to the benefit / risk ratio of the Janssen vaccine “.