“Third dose of vaccine after 65 years and immunosuppressed” – breaking latest news

A third dose of the vaccine for people over 65 or with compromised immune systems: the increasingly concrete orientation of the health leaders of the Biden administration, according to the New York Times. The decision seems linked to a fact: the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines would result less effective after six months. The expert group of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged a quick decision on the issue, presenting the latest research on the food and drug administration (FDA) to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). higher risk of contagion for immunosuppressed peopledespite the full vaccination course. It is feared that these patients may remain vulnerable to infection. In the United States, we are talking about 2.7% of the adult population. All the already vaccinated patients that I hospitalized for Covid, that is the cases in which the Sars-Cov-2 has ‘broken’ the immunization, had a weakened immune system, he said. Todd Rice, director of emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University medical center in Nashville.

Concern among health professionals

Also in Italy the question on the table of the insiders. I have already written to the competent management so that a third dose of the anti-Covid vaccine is evaluated as soon as possible, at least for the most fragile categories: I believe that on these subjects we must already proceed with a new injection, said the Undersecretary of Health. Pierpaolo Sileri. The strong concern especially among doctors, nurses and health workers in general, who have received the two doses of the vaccine for several months (they were the first to be vaccinated between January and February). The rules established by the European Parliament set the duration of the green pass at 9 months after the second dose of vaccine. Thanks to science and new technologies we have achieved an extraordinary result, that of being able to produce vaccines against Covid in just 10 months. But now we must be able to face the danger of variants – he said Rino Rappuoli, Scientific Director and Head of Research and Development of GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines -. There are three types of immunity to cope with the advance of the virus: the natural one, which offers low protection; that produced by vaccines, already higher; hybrid immunity, which is found in patients cured and then vaccinated, which is very high. To strengthen the defenses and limit the circulation of the virus as much as possible, a third dose of vaccines may be needed, 6 months or a year after the first two.

Israeli data

The fears about the “holding” of the vaccines also arise from Israeli data, according to which the effectiveness of Pfizer dropped in the last month, hand in hand with the spread of the Delta variant. The effectiveness, according to the Ministry of Health, is now reduced to 40% regarding the possibility of contagion or the development of mild forms of the disease. But in the prevention of hospitalizations the protective shield is still at 88 per cent, and in the prevention of severe forms of disease (and therefore deaths) it remains at 91 per cent. Data that will need to be confirmed because mass vaccinations in Israel began at the end of December and initially focused on the elderly and chronically ill. Furthermore, the number of cases studied is still relatively limited. In scientific circles, the possibility of offering a third dose of Pfizer as many as those who were vaccinated 6 months ago is being discussed. So far, in Israel, the third dose has only been given to certain categories of immunosuppressed.

The third dose is not needed

Of a different opinion Italian Society of General Medicine and Primary Care (Simg), according to which the vaccine doses currently administered are sufficient to provide effective coverage of the circulating virus, including variants, and a third dose not currently needed. Instead, it will become more likely in a few months, when the viral context has further changed. A proposal contained in a letter signed by several experts and sent to the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza. What we have found in the studies carried out so far is that even in immunosuppressed subjects the third dose of the vaccine has been shown not to increase the effectiveness of the first doses – he explains Ignazio Grattagliano, Simg member -. It would therefore be a useless effort. In these patients, therefore, the need for other preventive measures should be considered. in fact, the concrete possibility of using anti-Spike monoclonal antibodies as a post-exposure prophylaxis to the virus is being examined in subjects with low immune defenses, a health intervention that would see the family doctor once again at the forefront.