Adriana santagati
12/19/2020 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 12/19/2020 6:00 AM
On Thursday, confirmation came from Russia that the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine cannot be applied to people over 60 years of age for now.
This Friday, the director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) spoke of the possibility of developing a "light" vaccine for export.
In addition, the Argentine government said that the first 300,000 vaccines that arrive will be applied to that same number of people, even without the second dose having reached the country.
In the maelstrom of the pandemic, new questions continue to arise and others that, despite having been raised previously, remain as questions and are reformulated.
Here, the answer to five of them.
Do all vaccines have two doses?
The schedules that were analyzed in the different clinical trials of the most advanced vaccines are of two doses.
The only ones designed with a single dose are the one for the Janssen and Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the Chinese one from CanSino, both of which are being made in the country.
Now, the RDIF said that it is possible to have a "light" vaccine that
is applied in a single dose and that has the same level of immunity
, about 85%.
The difference is that this immunity would last less in time.
This Friday, an expert from Harvard University in an opinion column in the New York Times raises the same hypothesis for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines: that at this stage of the pandemic one should be vaccinated with a single dose, in order to expand the population to be immunized.
What is the degree of immunity that is achieved with a single dose?
The vaccines studied achieve a considerable level of immunity in the first dose, but a second booster is applied because, as explained in the aforementioned column by Michael Mina, professor of Epidemiology at Harvard, and Zeynep Tufekci, a sociologist who closely follows the pandemic "This late dose helps
solidify immune memory
, in part by giving the cells that make antibodies extra training, a process called affinity maturation. But this process begins with the first dose."
In the case of the Sputnik vaccine, which would reach Argentina first, its efficacy was 91.4% 21 days after the administration of the first dose.
Is it possible to apply one dose of one brand and the second of another?
Definitely not.
Each vaccine is developed with a particular technological platform, so that the doses
are
not
interchangeable
between one brand and another.
That is why it is very important that when the person is going to be vaccinated, check on the card or proof that they give them what vaccine they received, so that they apply the second dose of it.
In some vaccines, such as Sputnik, there are also differences between the doses (they have different adenoviruses), that is why we speak of component 1 and component 2, and they must be applied in that order.
Depending on the vaccine, the time between one application and another is 21 or 28 days, and must be respected.
Can people over 60 be vaccinated?
At the end of this note, the Sputnik V vaccine, which the Government announced will be the first to arrive in the country,
is not approved for people over 60 years of age in Russia
.
At this moment, a phase II trial is being developed in a group of 110 volunteers, which according to the website www.clinicaltrials.gov - a registry of clinical studies that are carried out in the world - has an end date for December
31st
.
However, Deputy Minister Carla Vizzotti assured from Russia that the preliminary results are positive and this Friday affirmed that the Russians have already recommended the expansion of this indication.
The authorization for the application of the vaccine in Argentina, in addition, must be made by the Ministry of Health after the recommendation made by the ANMAT technicians.
Who will receive the first vaccines that arrive?
At this time, the controversy is on the purchase of a vaccine that, at least until now, will not be able to receive an important part of the target population for which it is intended.
However, the Government always made it clear that older adults were not in the first line of vaccination:
the priority will be health personnel
, followed by security forces and teachers, a category that was recently incorporated to guarantee the return to face-to-face classes in March.
The health personnel is estimated at a little more than a million workers, with which clearly the first doses that arrive will not be enough for them.
For this reason, there is a kind of "triage" in the assignment to health workers.
To the general priority there is a
sub-
priority
for personnel working in emergencies and therapies.
Only after all of them are vaccinated, will other areas come and finally those who work in administrative sectors.
ACE
Look also
Sputnik V: the Government is betting to start vaccinating on December 28
Russian vaccine against coronavirus: the Government spoke of 600 thousand doses and now clarifies that there are only 300 thousand in December
