The Omicron variant is advancing in Europe and around the world. And to try to stop the infections, a fourth dose of the anti-Covid vaccine is thought of. Israel is set to be the first country in the world to offer the fourth dose to over 60s, medical personnel and people at risk. Along the same lines, Germany is preparing for an “aggressive ‘booster’ campaign against Omicron. And in Italy? The issue divides the experts, who take different positions. From Palù to Crisanti, from Bassetti to Pregliasco, from Gismondo to Minelli, here are their opinions.
PALÙ – Giorgio Palù, president of the Italian drug agency Aifa, for the fourth dose of vaccine against Covid-19 would wait to “evaluate the clinical impact of the Omicron variant. There is already the technology to adapt the vaccines to the new variants and it is being discussed whether it is possible to speed up the time for vaccination, “he says.
CRISANTI – The fourth dose of the anti-Covid vaccine launched in Israel for over 60s and health workers “is worrying”, he tells beraking latest news Salute è Andrea Crisanti, director of the Department of Molecular Medicine of the University of Padua. For the expert, the fact that in this country, where they started first with boosters, they are starting a new round of immunizations “is not a good sign” as regards the hope of having a solid shield with the third dose. lasting against contagion.
“After all – explains the virologist – I saw it with my own eyes: I have colleagues who took the third dose a month ago and got infected”. And “it’s not the Omicron variant. It has nothing to do with it. It’s all Delta here,” he points out.
PREGLIASCO – “For now I would say no,” the virologist told beraking latest news Salute Fabrizio Pregliasco, professor of the University of Milan, according to which “the ok for the elderly is fragile is the fate of this vaccination, which will pass through a scheme, a vaccination plan, such as that of the flu”.
BASSETTI – “If Israel has taken this decision there is a reasoned strategy, but let’s see. For now they are fourth doses only for a specific segment of the population. Personally, if we need to get vaccinated every 6 months, I can’t find anything of it. bad if this allows us to live more peacefully as it happens today, “he told beraking latest news Salute Matteo Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the Policlinico San Martino hospital in Genoa, recalling that “Israel is an open-air laboratory, they will start with the fourth doses after the third doses had started in July and they will start with the over 60s and health workers. But they will do it from January, so in 6 months “. “Today in the ward we can see that the Covid prognosis for a positive vaccinated and a non-immunized one is very different – recalls Bassetti – Everything must be governed by experience and scientific data which, if they say that the recall must be done every 6 months, We will do it. Medicine changes, it does not remain immutable over time, it is constantly evolving. Only the ignorant are amazed at this “.
GISMONDO – The microbiologist M does not exclude the need for a fourth anti-Covid dose, and then perhaps future doses at close intervals.aria Rita Gismondo. “We are now very clear that current vaccines protect us for 4-5 months, so from a purely scientific point of view, repeating the dose after 4-5 months is perfectly appropriate”. . Scientifically plausible, but “not pleasant”, observes the director of the Laboratory of clinical microbiology, virology and bio-emergency diagnostics at the Sacco hospital in Milan. “So – is the expert’s hope – we expect research to bring us a vaccine that can be at least annual, like that of the flu”.
MINELLI – He asks for more information Mauro Minelli, responsible for Southern Italy of the Foundation for personalized medicine. “What frankly continues to elude me – he comments to beraking latest news Salute – is why we should have Israel, whose population is even lower than that of some of our regions, as the guiding element of our choices”.
“More information is needed before we can say with firm and unambiguous certainty that it is appropriate to foresee a new dose of vaccines, perhaps even adapted to the dominant variants,” he says. “Of course, especially with the Omicron variant, we are all exposed to a worrying increase in infections, but what appears evident is that all in all Italy is reaping the benefits of well-considered choices that are essentially based on the composed and responsible behavior of Italians in the adapt to the anti-Covid measures and the seriousness and timeliness with which the vaccination campaign was conducted “, warns Minelli.
CAUDA – “I believe that in 2022 we will still have to make a further” anti-Covid “recall, perhaps with an updated vaccine, be it protein, Rna or Dna, but with new variants in order to be directed towards this”, the infectious disease specialist tells beraking latest news Salute Roberto Tail, consultant of the European Medicines Agency Ema for infectious diseases. “But in the absence of this we still do the vaccination and above all the third booster dose – he recommends – because it protects us against severe illness and death in a more than satisfactory way”.
PRESIDENT OF VIROLOGY – Arnaldo Caruso, president of the Italian Society of Virology (Siv-Isv), hopes for a timely update of the anti-Covid ‘shields’. “If fourth dose will have to be, fourth dose either, but with a vaccine adapted to the Omicron variant, destined to become dominant in a very short time.” Because “thinking of continuing future immunizations with a vaccine dating back to the beginning of the pandemic, at this moment no longer makes great sense”, explains in an interview with beraking latest news Salute the expert, full professor of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology at the University of Studi di Brescia, director of the microbiology laboratory of the Asst Spedali Civili.
While Israel moves towards the ‘booster of the booster’ intended for over 60s, frail patients and healthcare workers, at least 4 months after the third dose, for Caruso, “if we continue to do Green pass with expiry, the fourth dose will be a natural evolution “. But “imposed by laws and not by science – he specifies – because at this point, if we really want to talk about the vaccine, while reiterating that adhering to the immunization campaign against Covid-19 remains fundamental, we should start talking about a vaccine that is at least adapted to the latest variant of Sars-CoV-2, as happens every year for anti-flu prophylaxis “.