The first vaccine against Omicron arrives for children aged 5 to 11 inclusive, already authorized for the older ones. The Ministry of Health has published the circular which implements the opinion of the Cts of the Drug Agency with Pfizer’s free Cominarty vaccine against the Omicron Ba.4 and Ba.5 variants, recommended for the most fragile children but at the request of the parents it can be administered to all children in the age range. The Technical-Scientific Commission of AIFA, in the session of 5 December 2022, accepting the opinion expressed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) had already authorized the formulation. Last December 16, the Europa agency had also given authorization to the Moderna one for the same age group. And while experts, such as Matteo Bassetti, director of infectious diseases at the San Martino hospital in Genoa, are calling for a full-scale recovery of vaccinations, the latest data from the Istituto Superiore di Sanita’ confirms that vaccines protect substantially against mortality and the most serious complications. In the population aged 60-79 for those not vaccinated against Covid, the mortality rate is three times higher than those vaccinated with boosters and four times higher than those vaccinated with the fourth dose for less than 120 days.
In the over 80s, mortality (data from 11/18/2022 to 12/18/2022) is almost 6 times higher than in those vaccinated with an additional/booster dose, and up to 10 times higher than in those vaccinated with a second booster dose of less than 120 days.
Eyes remain focused on the new variants, especially in the US and Asia. The US Centers for Disease Control confirm a continuous growth in the diffusion of the XBB.1.5 sub-variant (so-called Kraken) which has almost reached the Cerberus sub-variant which, in its two forms BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 is at 44 .7%. And on the other side of the planet, Chinese health authorities reported today that almost 60,000 deaths are to be considered related to the wave of Covid-19 that has been scourging the country since last month, the most serious since the Wuhan crisis in January 2020. Yes This is the first large death toll released by the Beijing government since the easing of the restrictions of the ‘zero tolerance’ policy decided in early December. In detail, there were 59,938 deaths between December 8, 2022 and January 12, 2023, Jiao Yahui, head of the National Health Commission’s Medical Administration Office, said at a press conference: 5,503 deaths are due to respiratory failure triggered by the infection, while another 54,435 are the cases of deaths related to Covid, but of people with chronic pathologies such as cancer or cardiovascular diseases. The official count decided by China, however, includes only the deaths that are a direct consequence of the coronavirus, without the presence of other types of pathologies, according to the restrictive definition announced in recent weeks by the local authorities, at the basis of the criticisms of the World Organization of healthcare.
The median age of those who died was 80.3, and 90 percent were aged 65 or over, according to Chinese media. Beijing has ended up in the crosshairs of the international community for the lack of transparency on the latest outbreak which has led to reports of crowded hospitals and funeral homes across the country and at the limits of operation. Many countries have also imposed restrictions on travelers from China asking Beijing to share more data with the rest of the world. However, China’s foreign ministry said the United States – which has been lauded by WHO for the information it has provided so far – also faces pressure to share its data on the spread of the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant, believed to be highly contagious, in a timely manner. (HANDLE).
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