03/25/2021 12:02 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 03/25/2021 12:02 PM
In the race against time to beat the coronavirus, with the advance of
the variants of Manaus and the United Kingdom
and with winter closer and closer, the Government once again talks about the possibility of giving
a single dose of some of the Covid 19 vaccines to more people and
defer the second application
.
In fact, this Thursday morning both the Buenos Aires minister, Fernán Quirós, and the Buenos Aires deputy minister, Nicolás Kreplak, agreed that the strategy is under analysis and
will
be
defined in the coming days.
The infectologists consulted by
Clarín
assure that it is a viable possibility in the face of the emergency, although they clarify that
the scheme must be completed yes or yes
and that there is little information on the effectiveness of the half-time vaccination and on what happens if the deadlines are extended. than recommended.
In addition, they point out that, along the same lines, they should redefine the application criteria and
stop prioritizing those under 60 years of age without risk factors
just because they are teachers over other people of the same age with comorbidities.
According to the Minister of Health of the Nation, Carla Vizzotti, they are evaluating the possibility of making this modification on the
Covishield / AstraZeneca
vaccine
and are also "analyzing the information that is available on the
Sinopharm
vaccine
."
v 1.5
Vaccines distributed by COVAX
Data as of March 24, 2021
Source:
PAHO
Infographic:
Clarín
The minister explained that this scheme is being implemented with the AstraZeneca vaccine with
good results in the United Kingdom and Canada
and that the advisability or not of doing the same in Argentina will be examined with the committee of experts that will meet between today and tomorrow. .
This possibility is not considered with Sputnik V since
the components of the first and second doses are different
, although it did emphasize that
the interval between applications
can be extended
to 60 days.
The infectologist Roberto Debbag, vice president of the Latin American Society of Pediatric Infectology, warns that "vaccines must comply with their complete scheme" and that for something they were developed and approved for administration in that way.
He says that this is independent of whether they have two identical or different components.
However, he recognizes that the situation in Argentina makes it impossible to meet the ideal and that, in this complicated scenario,
vaccinating more people with a single dose is a possibility
.
According to the specialist, we have between 12 and 15 million people at risk and
several points against
.
"On the one hand, there is greater circulation of the variants of the United Kingdom and Manaus that have high transmission, are more severe and, in the case of Manaus, present
chances of reinfection,
" he says.
To this is added that the cold is approaching and, according to the experts,
the risk of contagion increases
.
This is due to the fact that with low temperatures not only
the virus becomes more viable
but also
changes the behavior of people
, who begin to gather in closed places with less air circulation.
The third element that Debbag highlights is that, so far, in relation to the total population, very few people have had Covid in the country and that today they may have some level of immunity for this.
“To the lack of vaccines we must add a fourth detail: that we are choosing to vaccinate teachers between 18 and 59 years old without risk factors before other people of the same age who have comorbidities and, for this reason, a
higher risk of developing a severe picture
”, points Debbag and affirms that this should change.
Debbag clarifies that the picture is not the same with all vaccines.
"In the case of AstraZeneca / Covishield, some studies, not very robust, say that there is efficacy against severe disease for a time with the application of a dose," adds Debbag.
And he adds: “It is not crazy to think about not keeping the doses that have already arrived in the country.
The issue is then to have the second dose for everyone
. "
"We also know that you can wait 12 weeks between the first and second application of this vaccine and that even in this way the efficacy would be greater. We also have to say that
there is no certainty about what happens with the antibody titers if that period is exceeded
”, highlights the specialist.
He assures that the recommendation regarding Sinopharm "is to apply at four weeks and that there is a
lack of studies on how effective a single dose is
and what can happen if the second
dose
is not administered after a month".
“However, by analogy and taking into account what usually happens with vaccines in general, it is most likely that
after a dose antibodies will be generated and the risk of mortality will decrease,
although over time it will be necessary to complete the scheme ”, he highlights.
Similar is what would happen with Sputnik V, which is recommended to be applied with an interval of 21 days.
For Lautaro de Vedia, infectologist at Hospital Muñiz and former president of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases, "it is
reasonable to
give one dose now and delay the next one for a short time because
we are very slow and winter is approaching"
, although he clarifies that whenever the The vaccination operation is well organized and "let us be sure that the next doses will arrive."
"If the scheme is not completed,
we will be throwing away all the effort that has been made to the garbage
, because two-dose vaccines require precisely both applications," he insists.
"In the long run, if the second is not applied, immunity will drop a lot", he maintains and affirms that "studies are lacking to determine
what happens with the prevention of serious disease with the application of a single dose
".
Meanwhile, he agrees with Debbag that vaccinating people without risk factors first because they are teachers is a mistake.
“You have to start with people who have comorbidities.
From an epidemiological point of view, it is much more relevant to vaccinate a person who has a basic disease or problems in their defenses than healthy people ”, he remarks.
ACE
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