Pablo Sigal
08/03/2021 12:08
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 08/03/2021 12:10
The uncertainty about the lack of
second doses
of the Sputnik V vaccine is growing.
Days go by without major news.
Russia has already announced it: the priority for the few second components against the
coronavirus
that are manufactured is
held by the Russians
.
There are Argentines who have been waiting for the vaccine supplement for 4 months: more than 100,000 in the City.
More than a million in the country.
The expectation in Argentina, then, is now placed above all on what the
combination of vaccines
can contribute
.
As it turned out, in the experiment carried out in the City, the AstraZeneca vaccine
works better
than the Sinopharm vaccine as a substitute for the Russian one.
So as long as trials continue with other brands, the Sputnik V's first lifeline will most likely be the Oxford one.
The Province has already announced that it will give
the people of Buenos Aires
to
choose
if they prefer the replacement or wait for the second original component to arrive.
The second doses of the Russian, as stated by the Government, will continue to arrive, although the certainty of those announcements always border on the
unknown
.
The
decision
, apparently, will be left to those interested in completing their vaccination schedules.
¿
It's
a dose of AstraZeneca shoulder a hundred Sputnik flying?
That is the question that each person will have to answer, according to their own criteria or the advice of a doctor.
v 1.5
The vaccines arrived in Argentina
One by one, which brands are they and how many.
Tap to explore the data
Source:
Presidency of the Nation
Infographic:
Clarín
Incidentally, more than eight months after the vaccination campaign began, there is
the paradox
that the Russian vaccine, which was supposed to save Argentina due to the
delays
that were already looming in December with the British one, could finally end up being the one saved by AstraZeneca.
Then the Cansino vaccine can also be added and incorporated into the brand combination trial. It is believed that it could work because it uses
the same adenovirus
as Sputnik component 2. However, you must undergo an experiment that yields reliable results. The national government and the provinces bought a total of
14 million
doses of Cansino. The first batches could arrive during August.
Going to the AstraZeneca and Sputnik numbers, it should be clarified that what follows is
an exercise
to try to determine if the vaccines that Argentina bought can be
enough to correct the deficit
that has occurred.
That is, it is not yet confirmed that this will happen, or to what extent, but the idea is to see if it is
materially possible for it
to happen.
As of today there are
6,882,510 people
who received component 1
from Sputnik and they are waiting for 2. The reality today is that it is not known how many more second doses of the Russian vaccine will reach the country in the urgency of the short term and the tranquility of the medium term.
There are also the Russian vaccines that are
formulated and
packaged
by the Richmond laboratory.
Now it was announced that in August there would be a local production of
3 million doses
of these batches.
However, we will have to wait to confirm exactly the date on which they will be
available
to be applied.
A vial of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. Photo: Reuters
How many of the missing Russian vaccines could be replaced by AstraZeneca's if they are indeed the solution to the shortfall? Of the total contract for
22.4 million doses
that Argentina bought from that laboratory, so far
9,941,100 vaccines
have arrived
: according to the average of first and second doses applied in the country, of that quantity
7,175,592 would be first doses and 2,783,508, second.
In other words, the difference in people to be vaccinated to complete the AstraZeneca
schedules
would require
4,374,084 doses
.
Between the second doses of Oxford and Sputnik that remain to be applied, there are
11,256,594 vaccines
.
While those of AstraZeneca that are still expected to reach the country total
12,458,900 doses
.
This means that if it were decided to stop moving forward with more first doses of AstraZeneca to cover the second missing doses of Sputnik V, it
would be enough
to do so and there
would be 1,202,306 vaccines left over
, with which
601,153 more people
could be vaccinated
with the scheme full.
If this were the case, you would also have to take into account the
delivery times
of the AstraZeneca vaccines to come.
Although it is presumed that the production of the active principle that begins in Argentina and ends in Mexico or the United States
will
always
be faster
than the development that the Russians have not yet managed to regularize in their country.
Another question will then be to determine how Argentina's contract with the Gamaleya Institute will be completed.
That is, if Argentina will allow to continue receiving
more first doses than second
- already with the resolution to apply another vaccine as a complement in the future - or will it make the decision to stop receiving them.
The government's idea is to continue applying the Moderna vaccine to minors.
Photo: AP
In fact, if
624,330 more first doses of Sputnik
arrive from now
on, the
limit of the first component would already be reaching the limit, as stipulated in the first contract for 20 million vaccines. That is to say,
10 million would
be reached
, so that all the rest of the shipments consist of the for now utopian second components.
The
"threat" of termination
of the contract with the Russians, as it will be recalled, was already suggested in the email that the presidential adviser Cecilia Nicolini sent to the authorities of that country at the beginning of July.
Although making this decision, finally,
would exceed the commercial and health responsibility
to enter a slippery bilateral terrain that, everything would indicate, the Argentine Government would not be willing to go through.
Other alternatives in play to supply component 2 of Sputnik would run in principle with fewer chances.
For example, the use of the
surplus of 1.7 million Modernna vaccines
after finishing immunizing the 920 thousand minors with comorbidities.
The idea of the Government is to continue vaccinating children without basic diseases.
The Sinopharm vaccine would be a great alternative if it worked as a second dose of the Russian one, since it is the one that
Argentines have in greater quantity
, after the decision to buy another 24 million doses from China, of which 8, 7 million arrived during the month of July.
But in the Buenos Aires vaccine combination trial, it was learned, the results have not been able to match those of AstraZeneca.
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