After Israel, the first country to start the vaccination campaign and also the first to propose the third dose for certain population groups, there is now talk of administering a “booster” dose (ie: reinforcement) of the anticovid vaccine in Italy as well. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious disease specialist at Duke University (USA), spoke about the issue in an online conference (here the full version, in English), sharing his assessments of who should receive the third dose, who to wait, and what they are. the variables to be taken into consideration.
Order of administration. According to Wolfe, there is no doubt that priority should be given to the immunosuppressed: “These are people whose response to vaccines is weaker than normal,” he explains, “and for this reason it is good to offer them an additional dose”. After them, green light for the elderly and front-line health workers: instead, it expresses caution on the possibility of a third dose available shortly for anyone who wishes it, not for doubts about efficacy or safety, but because, before thinking about improving the immune response of those who are already protected, it would be appropriate to reach those who do not yet have any protection.
Convince the undecided. “We know that the vaccine is safe and effective, and that those who are vaccinated run much less risk of ending up in intensive care or dying of covid than those who are not,” he says, recalling that this is the information we must use to convince those who are he is still undecided. “The worst way to combat vaccination hesitation is to provide incorrect data or not provide any at all,” he recalls. In this way, people can fill the gaps left by scientific communication with hoaxes and fake news.
The third dose, Wolfe continues, is exactly the same as the first and second: but then, someone asks, isn’t it better to wait until we have a vaccine adapted to the new variants of SARS-CoV-2, which perhaps offers better protection? According to Wolfe, “we run the risk now, so it is important that the third dose is given now.”
Better to donate? An issue that is not touched upon by the expert, but which is of vital importance since we all live on the same planet, is the one concerning the so-called Third World: it is ethical to offer the inhabitants of richer countries a third “reinforcement” dose. , when three quarters of the planet’s population is still waiting for the first one? It is an aspect to keep in mind both from the humanitarian point of view (in August the WHO asked the First World to donate its doses to the Third), and from the point of view selfish of a resumption of precovid life: how can we think of returning to normal, if the rest of the world is not protected from the coronavirus? Unless you imagine New Zealand-style isolation, it’s not possible (and not even desirable).