Parliament has just extended the life of our green passes, which take 3 more months and therefore will last 12 months instead of the nine planned so far. At the moment, however, there are no certainties on the duration of the vaccine protection which would seem to change also based on who the immunized are. It is no coincidence that the third dose of the vaccine will be administered to the most fragile patients already in a month, as announced by the Minister of Health Speranza, well before the 12-month duration foreseen by the “new” green pass. But for the rest of the population there is no such urgency, as the EMA has just said.
The extension of the green pass
The news came with the changes approved by the Chamber’s Social Affairs Committee to the decree that extended the use of the green certificate from last August. Provision that from Monday 6 September will be in the Chamber for the first go-ahead. The measure, as mentioned, provides that the new and old green passes will last 12 months instead of nine, not only those obtained through vaccination but also those in the pocket of the Covid patients who have made, as expected, a single dose of the vaccine. Among other things, among the changes approved in the commission there is also the one that allows you to obtain the green pass not only through swabs and antigen tests, but also with salivary swabs (but as for the other tests, the green pass in this case will last 48 hours).
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The duration to 12 months
But why extend the green pass by three months? So does the vaccine protect at least up to a year? So far, there are no certain answers to these questions, even if several scientific publications highlight the fall in the antibody response in the most fragile population, such as the immunosuppressed. Even from Ema, the European Medicines Agency, the first indications arrive that help to clarify. In recent days, the EMA opened the possibility of a third dose, but only for the most fragile patients, while for the rest of the population it was clear: “On the basis of current evidence, it is not urgent to administer booster doses of Covid-19 vaccines to people already fully vaccinated in the general population, “explained the Agency together with the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (Ecdc). As if to say that the shield offered by the vaccine still works for the vast majority of the immunized. Even if some countries are moving forward, among all Israel which has already begun to administer the third dose to everyone (starting, however, from the elderly). There, however, the vaccinations started earlier, already in December 2020.
How much does the vaccine protect then?
Vaccinations in Italy started in January 2021 for health professionals and in February for the over 80s. So one year has not yet passed. The fact is, however, that scientific publications and experts – starting with the Scientific Technical Committee – are beginning to support the need for a third dose at least for a portion of vaccinated products because, as Giorgio Palù, president of Aifa (the Italian Medicines Agency), also explained ) and a member of the CTS, the cycle currently envisaged “does not sufficiently protect immunosuppressed subjects, transplant recipients, oncohematological patients, dialysis patients”, but “also elderly subjects” who should be considered immunosuppressed. This is why for these categories the administration of the third dose will start before one year, that is already 8-9 months after the previous immunization. For the rest of the population, however, the third dose, if there is one, will come later. Hence the decision to extend the green pass to 12 months. With a footnote: on this matter there are no fixed points and changes, based on scientific evidence in continuous evolution, can always be around the corner.