From 1 March we will start with the fourth dose for the most fragile and in Myrta Merlino there is the fear that what has been seen in the past can be repeated, that in the end everyone will have to do the second booster of the anti-Covid vaccine. In the episode of 22 February of L’Aria che Tira, a program of La7, the infectious disease specialist Massimo Galli is a guest in connection, who answers the doubts of the hostess: “They will tell me about all the colors but I support once more that it would be advisable for the fourth dose to be made also on the basis of the evaluation of whether there was an immune response or not. Especially both before and after the fourth dose. If the superfragile and the immunosuppressed do not respond even to the fourth dose, we have the problem of how to go about re-protecting them. I believe that the fourth dose, with the vaccine we have, is to be done only to certain categories that need particular protection and with a more medical intervention than public health interventions. But a generalized fourth dose – underlines the retired expert – with this vaccine, in a country that has had millions of recent Omicron cases, which have given immunity a boost, and with so many people with three doses, it makes no sense. and it is of no real use, they have also backtracked in Israel ”.
So is this vaccine old? Could things change with a new vaccine? There are many questions that Merlin raises in front of her guest: “Objectively this vaccine is based on the virus that circulated in February 2020, I have said it millions of times. Since then, many variations have gone under the bridge. This vaccine was exceptional, despite everything, in preventing the trivaccinates from ending up in hospital, but it was not as effective in preventing the trivaccinates from getting the Omicron after not even particularly significant exposure. He has great merit and has done his part. Currently a further dose booster must be considered in people with clinical conditions of immunosuppression and immunosensitivity, therefore in the elderly who may have a lack of immune response “.