“Technical reservations” on the vaccination obligation. This is the position of Andrea Crisanti, director of the Department of Molecular Medicine at the University of Padua, heard by beraking latest news Salute. From a practical point of view, obviously the full approval of the first Covid vaccine – the Pfizer one – by the US Fda “has no local consequences for Europe and Italy, we have to wait for the pronouncement of the European and national regulatory bodies and I expect it to be in line with what the US agency has already done. Clearly a vaccine that is no longer authorized but fully approved can legitimately be made mandatory. But I am right now on the obligation – not the vaccination itself therefore – I have reservations of a technical nature: I would like to see the effectiveness of the current vaccine against variants first. Because if we make a low-efficacy vaccine mandatory, we are giving the no-vax a gift. “
“First – he explains – I would therefore like to verify the duration of protection” of the current vaccines, “I would like to verify if it is possible to identify protection correlates, something measurable that tells us whether a person is protected or not, I would like to verify that level of protection they have with the variants. Because the worst case scenario could be that the vaccine is mandatory and then people come out who have vaccinated and maybe we find them in intensive care. This would be a fantastic gift to no-vax. My only reservation this is it, “he explains. “If you were to ask me instead whether I would make a vaccine that gives 85-90% protection against variants and lasts more than a year mandatory, my answer would be yes without hesitation,” he adds.
Green pass chapter: the extension of the duration up to 12 months is expected. “We are in the field of creativity. They are all decisions without scientific evidence”, explains Crisanti. The duration of the protection of Covid vaccines, “from what we see in Israel lasts around 8-9 months”.
So taking the duration of the Green pass beyond this time frame could be a problem, given that the first vaccinated, therefore the people with the expiring green certificate, are the health professionals? “Suffice it to say that in Israel they, the health professionals are getting infected”, observes the director of the Department of Molecular Medicine of the University of Padua who, returning to the extension of the Green Pass, reiterates: “These are all creative decisions that they do not have. nothing scientific, unfortunately. I don’t know what we risk “in terms of infections,” I only know that it is a decision not taken on the basis of scientific evidence. After all, the Green pass is not a public health tool but a persuasion to get vaccinated , which is positive. But having no effect on public health, the fact that they prolong it, and how much, is irrelevant “.
Would the solution be to launch the third dose for everyone? “Again: it will first be necessary to understand if the third dose protects against variants – points out Crisanti – otherwise one of the boosters can do 10 and they do not protect. In this case the ideal would be to update the vaccines. However Israel is already doing the third dose and in a while we will understand if it will be protective. I hope that the vaccine is effective against the variants and that it maintains a level of protection above 85%, otherwise it would have a limited effect “.