The latest circular from the Ministry of Health signed by the Director of Prevention Gianni Rezza opens at third dose for a new slice of the population; after the immunosuppressed and essential health personnel, even the Over 60 return to vaccination hubs.
This time, however, not only immunoprophylaxis against Covid-19 will be administered since, in a single solution, subjects will be able to receive also the flu vaccine.
The country is thus preparing for a further inoculation for about 10 million people, such would be the number of citizens who have already received two doses or the single-dose J&J for at least six months.
The indication on the minimum times to be respected comes in fact from theEMA, the European drug agency, which has also definitively declared that the third dose of the vaccine can be generically administered to over 18s.
The response of the technical-scientific commission of theAifa, the Italian drug agency, which gives its consent but calls for further specific assessments to the state’s public health strategy.
In this regard, we try to understand how the government is preparing to act: the additional dose will soon be extended to all Italians?
Reassuring data for double administration
The opening to the new range goes hand in hand with a medical practice with promising results: the double administration. From 7 October, those Over 60 who choose to get vaccinated with the third dose could in fact also receive the flu vaccine (if they wanted to).
A new study published in preprint on the British Medical Journal and financed by National Institute for Health Research English has in fact highlighted the effectiveness and total safety of this mix.
The administration of the anti-flu drug at the same time as the anti-Covid-19 is therefore a method to be encouraged since, in addition to speeding up the timing of individual practices, it preserves the immune response of the individual to both vaccines.
Third dose coming for everyone? The clarifications
Despite recent declarations by many regions, an immune reinforcement plan for the entire population is not conceivable at the moment. There is certainly no shortage of stocks given the almost 14 million of doses present on the territory, but the priority there are others.
To talk about it is Sergio Abrignani, immunologist of the Technical Scientific Committee for the Covid emergency, who specifies that the priority is to vaccinate everyone with the first and second dose in the hope of reaching the threshold of 90% of vaccinated people.
Only by intervening in this sense is it possible to avert the risk, albeit remote, of a variant of Sars-CoV-2 not recognized by vaccines. A future opening is therefore not excluded, but everything will depend on the data monitored on a weekly basis.
Preventive intent and legal doubts
In Italy, from 20 September to now, the administrations of the third dose have involved 268 thousand people. Fragile subjects, so called because of the high risk of contracting the infection in a severe form, are now covered and a wider intervention is aimed at.
The intent is purely preventive as evidenced by the difference that exists between the Italian resolution for the Over 60s and the French and US ones that direct the additional dose only to Over 65s.
One thing is certain, however, at a legal level some perplexities remain. In the regulation on the digital certificate of green pass the treatment of the third dose is not currently contemplated because the law was drafted long before the possibility of a dosage was discussed booster.
The question therefore remains open pending changes to the original text governing certification.
