“EVEN if they have all the credentials to be of excellent workmanship and quality, the Sputinik and the Chinese vaccine come from systems that use different standards of evidence than ours. This does not mean that they are worse, but that we lack information, but not knowing is not an acceptable option for us. ”To say so Guido Rasi, former Ema director and now engaged in the training of doctors and health professionals with the position of director of the Consulcesi Club provider. “Having the greatest possible knowledge at your disposal means being able to manage any doubts and critical issues at a social level, bringing to support numbers and evidence, as happened with the Astrazeneca case “, explains Consulcesi Club during the masterclass, Covid-19 between mutation and variants.
There are many doubts and questions from health professionals to which the microbiologist Rasi and the infectious disease specialist Massimo Andreoni, primary of Infectious Disease at the Tor Vergata Polyclinic in Rome, answer. Here are the four main questions from attendees:
Vaccines and variants
Are the mRNA vaccines currently available against Covid-19 also effective against the variants? The answer is yes and the reassurance comes from Massimo Andreoni and is also supported by new studies just published – May 5 in the News England Journal and The Lancet – which dispel many doubts about their effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 variants. This is why it is important to “continue the vaccination campaign with conviction” adds Andreoni.
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Who is healed
Should those who have contracted Covid-19 still be vaccinated? The answer is yes, but only with the second dose and with a minimum distance of at least three months from the end of the disease. “Those who have contracted Covid-19 – explains Andreoni – must get vaccinated to enhance the ability to defend ourselves from infection with a single dose. With a minimum spacing of 3 to 6 months from the end of the disease to avoid too many antibodies are present. The disease is as if it were the ‘first dose’ and the second booster, ”he adds.
I test
What are the tests that identify which variant you have to sequencing the virus? To identify new variants, a sequencing of the virus must be done, this is the most complete way to monitor all mutations and understand if there is a real variant, that is, if the virus has mutated sufficiently, Andreoni replies who adds: “We are currently sequencing only certain regions of the virus that matter most to us in terms of vaccine response and transmissibility. Other systems are useful but allow us to understand only if the mutation is present, as they work on already known mutations but not to recognize new ones “.
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The vaccination plan
What is the vaccination plan for non-responders to vaccines? The vaccination program for now does not include a specific strategy, at the moment the health institutions are engaged in monitoring the situation with a campaign of serological tests to assess the immunization status of the population. “It is necessary to clarify who is a non-responder, in fact the health professionals often judge the response to the vaccine only by the presence or absence of antibodies but this is not enough. Emblematic is the case of immunosuppressed people who in most cases develop few antibodies and could be considered non-responders but if we analyze the cell-mediated response they are actually responders, even if they have not created antibodies “For many doctors and for all of us it is a new world that we understand day by day ”“ For this reason – adds Rasi – the training of doctors first of all who then inform citizens is now more fundamental than ever ”.
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