“Strong probability of even more dangerous variants, pandemic is not over”

L’World Health Organization (WHO) warns and warns that the Covid-19 pandemic is absolutely not behind us: there is in fact the risk that new even more dangerous variants will arise. An alert that increases concerns, while infections are rising throughout Europe and in Italy, the Gimbe Foundation highlights how over 2 million over-60s are still not vaccinated and therefore are at risk. At the same time, the European Medicines Agency (Ema) confirms the efficacy of vaccines also available against variants and soon a second immunizer could be available for children over-12. The new alarm comes from the usual briefing from Geneva on the pandemic situation: the WHO emergency committee has warned that new variants of the SarsCoV2 virus could spread around the world making it even more difficult to stop the epidemic. “It’s not over at all,” said the experts, underlining the strong likelihood that new and perhaps more dangerous variants will emerge that could be even more difficult to control.

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Currently, however, the EMA reassures, a complete cycle of the four anti-Covid vaccines available still provides high protection against all variants in circulation, including Delta, especially against serious illness and hospitalization. Further confirmation also comes from the publication in the New England Journal of Medicine of the data confirming the efficacy of the single-dose J&J vaccine against Delta and the duration of the immune response for at least 8 months. In the face of effective vaccines, it is therefore extremely important to immunize as many people as possible in Europe. The EU Agency is also evaluating the request to extend the use of Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine to young people between 12 and 17 years – currently vaccinated only with the Pfizer immunizer – and a decision is expected at the end of next week. As for a possible third dose, “it is now too early to confirm if and when a booster dose will be needed, because there is not yet enough data from vaccination campaigns and ongoing studies to understand how long the vaccine will last”, he said. clarified the Ema head of vaccine strategy Marco Cavaleri. Meanwhile, the vaccination campaign in Italy is proceeding.

But with an “Achilles heel” that is represented, the Gimbe Foundation notes in its weekly monitoring, of the more than 4.7 million over-60s at risk of serious illness not covered by the double dose of vaccine. Of these, 2.2 million (12.4%) have not yet received even a dose of vaccine with significant regional differences (from 21.8% in Sicily to 7.2% in Puglia), while 2.55 million (14 , 2%) must complete their course after the first dose. But “to determine the control of the epidemic we should probably exceed 80% vaccination coverage”, recalled Gianni Rezza, director of Prevention of the Ministry of Health. If the goal is to immunize as many people as possible, various experts point out that it is also important now to move towards a vaccination strategy that takes into account specific characteristics. According to the experts Mario Plebani (Department of Laboratory Medicine of the University of Padua), Giuseppe Banfi (Full Professor of Clinical Biochemistry of the Vita e Salute San Raffaele University) and Giuseppe Lippi (Section of Clinical Biochemistry of the University of Verona) the use of tests for the measurement of anti-SarCov2 antibodies and neutralizing antibodies in the audience of frail and elderly subjects. This, they write in a statement published in the journal of the Italian Society of Clinical Biochemistry and Clinical Molecular Biology (SIBioC), in order to better plan a “personalized” anti-Covid vaccination strategy.