Vaccines against Covid-19 have been made, tested and distributed in record time to be able to keep up with the pandemic. Many have thought that in order to achieve this goal in such a short time compared to the years usually required, one has actually been achieved gigantic experimentation globally. And all the citizens of the world acted as guinea pigs. But really so?
The hesitation
The reasons forhesitation to the vaccine big topic and the studies are more and more numerous, he said Andrea Grignolio, professor of History of Medicine, University of Life and Health, San Raffaele, Milan, who spoke at Tempo della Salute. Interestingly, many refuse the vaccine because they think they have the fragile immune system. A “determinant” that stands out (that is, an element that is part of the past experience to understand the reasons for rejection, doubt, fears) preciselyguinea pig effect. One of the strongest fears, up to 30% of people in the pandemic phase, is to undergo vaccines that have not been fully tested. And this is explained by a lack of knowledge, there is no objective confirmation.
The importance of the post marketing phase
All the experts who attended the meeting underlined that the post-marketing phase, that is the safety check provided for each drug and vaccine, was and will be a further verification on the anti Covid vaccine. Very rare thrombosis and myocarditis emerged after millions of administrations. Such rare side effects typically emerge after years. The post-marketing phase with the Covid vaccine was instead instantaneous because the drug was taken by billions of people.
Why the vaccines arrived in eight months: the three reasons
But how did we manage to do so quickly? He answers the question Guido Rasi, full professor of Microbiology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, who tells how in the most dramatic phases of the pandemic, however, they did not want to give up phase 3 of the experimentation. Typically 5-10 – maximum twenty thousand volunteers are enrolled for a vaccine. An average of 40,000 people were enrolled for each Covid vaccine, much more than usual and this was possible because disease was everywhere: in a few weeks thousands of people were enrolled in all hemispheres. In short, there was a massive enlistment, and the virus helped us in this. In addition, the United States has created a consortium, financing the research with 15 billion dollars: the best brains have joined together by making their knowledge available, with a unanimous effort never seen before when scientists are generally competing. The mRNA technology has been known for twenty years, but there had never been the money to develop it. Finally, the regulatory aspect has also accelerated, creating what has been called rolling review: instead of waiting for the complete package of documents from the pharmaceutical companies, every small step was communicated to the regulatory bodies and analyzed, and if something was wrong, further information was requested. At the EMA there was a task force of scientists who worked 24 hours a day. The regulatory machine is so complex that it cannot be influenced.
Herd immunity failed – that’s why
The vaccine on an innovative platform became available in less than a year, better than the rosiest expectations, he adds Gianni Rezza, general director of Health Prevention at the Ministry of Health who tells the phases of the perception of the disease: At the beginning of a pandemic there is the honeymoon between human being and vaccine. Everyone wanted the vaccine. Our goal was to bring down mortality for this reason we have chosen to give priority to the elderly, more vulnerable, and health workers. We talked about vaccinating 70% of the population to achieve herd immunity. The calculation was the result of a formula, assuming the vaccine was sterilizing, that is, it protected from infection. In the beginning, in fact, it was like that. Unfortunately then the variants emerged and the basic reproduction number with Omicron is much higher. Vaccines have protected us from severe disease but not too much from infection, although a recent New England study found that the vaccine protects 30% from Omicron infection: little, but better than nothing. We thus understood that we have to live with Covid.
Information overload
It is often educated and intelligent people who are reluctant to vaccinate. There was an overload of information on the infodemic, without in-depth knowledge of the subject, concludes Andrea Grignolio. There are no 100 percent safe drugs, any treatment, even water after a marathon can lead to death. The appeal to trust more in medical knowledge, the risk of a disease and the risk of a vaccine, which is always very low, must always be balanced. We look at the polio that thanks to the vaccine has been eradicated and we thank our parents who vaccinated us.
November 10, 2022 (change November 10, 2022 | 19:57)
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