Fourth dose for everyone? «We get ready», Explained the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza speaking of a possible fourth dose of the anti Covid vaccine extended to everyone. Two days ago, the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa) gave the green light for the administration of the new booster dose for immunocompromised subjects (with a poor immune response) starting from March.
And now the Ministry of Health does not rule out that the second recall can be extended to everyone. There would already be a hypothetical date. Let’s go into detail.
Fourth dose for everyone? Here’s when
Two days after AIFA’s green light for the administration of the fourth dose for the frail from March (a measure that will affect about 500,000 people in Italy), Health Minister Roberto Speranza does not rule out aextension of the second booster to the rest of the population.
The fourth dose for everyone could come in Autumn. «We get ready»Explained Speranza. A definitive decision has not yet been taken, but Italy cannot be caught unprepared if in a few months the scientists say that a second booster. And the government is already moving in this direction.
The executive has in fact allocated 250 million euros to the commissioner coordinated by General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, who manages the vaccination campaign. These funds are for buying new supplies of the two anti Covid pills (Pfizer and Merck-MSD, aimed primarily at the elderly). But not only. Such a significant sum also has another purpose: buy stocks of vaccines.
Aifa has authorized the administration of the fourth dose to fragile subjects with a poor immune response, for which a booster is required. But the fourth dose could be open to everyone in 7-8 months.
Fourth dose, the possible scenarios
The Ministry of Health is therefore not ruling out that in the autumn the fourth injection may be extended to a wider segment of the population. There are currently two scenarios: the first is similar to that of influenza, for which a annual vaccine to the most fragile. The second scenario, not excluded by Speranza, is one fourth dose open to all.
Nicola Magrinidirector general of Aifa, in an interview with SkyTg24 confirmed: “Focusing on the most fragile subjects is the priority. We will evaluate what will happen very carefully, starting from the next few months that will surely see the tail of this pandemic. It will be necessary to understand which variants will circulate and based on that to decide whether to have another mass vaccination campaign or, on the contrary, restricting the recommendation to get vaccinated as for the flu only on subjects from a certain age».
So the unlimited green pass with third dose is currently only “frozen”. Waiting for the decision of science.
Concludes the coordinator of the CTS, Franco Locatelli: «There is still no evidence to say whether the fourth dose will be needed. Everyone agrees and clearly on immunosuppressed subjects. But before making choices about fourth dose vaccination for the entire population we will have to wait for data on how long the protection conferred by the third injection lasts. For the moment, as emerges from the latest analysis from the control room, it is over 93 per cent. Still high».
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