Irene Hartmann
05/08/2021 12:00
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 05/08/2021 12:00
Does it make sense to live as a loss the news that the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine could be replaced by its limited version, the Sputnik light?
And if Argentina were left with a portfolio of vaccines of
poorer efficacy
than those that play in the first league (Pfizer, Moderna and Sputnik V itself),
how would we be left standing before the pandemic?
Three experts analyzed the issue and the coincidence was complete:
vaccinating a higher percentage of the population
with vaccines of apparent "lower" performance is an
overcoming strategy
(in this and in any context) than could be formulated as vaccinating fewer people with highest efficacy dose.
Two of those consulted, both PhDs in Biochemistry and Conicet main researchers, seem to have agreed to appeal to the metaphor of the
urgency of a fire
to talk about Covid-19.
On the one hand,
Jorge Quarleri
, professor at the UBA and “virologist” at the Institute for Biomedical Research on Retroviruses and AIDS (INBIRS): “Imagine you have a fire.
Six firefighters come with a hose that has little water.
What are you doing?
Do you tell them to start work as soon as possible or do you propose to wait for a larger crew to arrive, which will take at least an hour?
Without a doubt you choose the first
”.
In Mendoza, vaccination against the coronavirus for people over 70 years old.
Photo Orlando Pelichotti / Los Andes
Daniela Hozbor
, "vaccinologist" at the Institute of Biotechnology and Molecular Biology (IBBM), and professor at UNLP, suggested leaving aside all kinds of less urgent questions, such as what will be the
useful life of the antibodies
produced by vaccines in mode " unit dose ".
“I wouldn't worry about it now.
It is not known which vaccines will be, finally.
We don't know what will happen.
The urgent thing is to put out this fire
that we have ”, he stressed.
Clarín's
query
had arisen from the approval in Moscow of the “half vaccine” Sputnik V, now renamed -as a complete vaccine in the unit-dose format- “
Sputnik light
”, which only includes the first of the two components of the version full (adenovirus 26).
Is that, although the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) announced that they will continue to prioritize administering the two doses in Russia (the effectiveness in that case reaches 91.6%), they clarified that the new proposal, with a lower effectiveness, of the
79.4%
is
a reasonable option for its international partners
.
This, it is obvious,
includes Argentina
, beyond the fact that the Government has promised this Thursday that people who have already received the first dose (or are receiving it these days) will have access (three months later, as is known) to the second, in order to complete the scheme.
For this promise to be fulfilled in the case of Sputnik, 3.9 million doses of component 2 should arrive in the country in the coming weeks. This Saturday a plane is scheduled to leave for Moscow to find a departure, of which no Quantity of units were specified or what component they are.
Strategy
Among the 76% efficacy of the first dose of the
Oxford-AstraZeneca
vaccine
, 79.3% (although, it must be emphasized, the data were not officially published) of
Sinopharm
, plus 79.4% of coverage of Sputnik Light, Argentina would be left with a
portfolio of "sub 80%" efficacy vaccines
.
For
Javier Farina
, infectious disease doctor of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases (SADI), this is still good news: “At the public health level, strategies of a dose with about 80% are much better than aiming to vaccinate fewer people with doses that offer ninety-odd protection ”.
In addition to remembering that "the primary objective was always to have vaccines of more than 60% efficacy to improve the course of the outbreak," he noted an interesting fact: "
Sputnik Light is almost the same as the Johnson and Johnson vaccine
. It is the same platform. ”Thus, he referred to the vaccine known as"
Janssen
", also in a single-dose format, which has been being evaluated five months ago by the ANMAT.
Farina also reassured on another issue: “The single-dose strategy cannot be compared with the escalation of infections in Chile.
A dose of the Sinovac vaccine (
N. de la R .: one of the most used in the neighboring country
) offers 3% efficacy ...
3% is very different from 80%
”.
A bad name
For Daniela Hozbor, “what is very unhappy is the name.
Calling it '
light
' was a bad decision because it
gives the idea that it is a
to light vaccine
”.
“The truth is, they are really spectacular vaccines.
Later
we will see the duration of immunity, if a booster is needed or not
.
But it is an ideal strategy for this moment of the pandemic, "he assessed.
In addition, he added, "there are results that indicate this: the United Kingdom
opted to vaccinate more people with one dose
-mainly of AstraZeneca- when they had 60,000 infected daily and 2,000 deaths per day. Now they have no more than 2,000 cases per day and fewer 50 deaths ”.
For Hozbor, "comparing the percentages of efficacy between vaccines does not make much sense", due to the different criteria used in the protocol design of the trials.
On paper it means that
the 80% declared by Sinopharm does not have to mean the same as the 80% by Sputnik light
.
Vaccination for people over 80 years old at the Racing Club headquarters.
Photo Andrea D'Elía
Ranks are matched with a second percentage: the so-called "effectiveness."
While efficacy is the "ability to prevent disease and death within a specific protocol with volunteers who meet certain inclusion criteria (compared to another unvaccinated group)",
effectiveness is measured "in the street
, with its diversity Hozbor recalled.
With the little time that the Covid and vaccines have between us, this second data is just beginning to be felt.
Balance
Although the Gamaleya Institute's trial with the light version of Sputnik will only end in December, Jorge Quarleri considered that "from the point of view of public health,
the single-dose strategy is extremely valuable
."
But he also clarified: "They did not say it officially but, based on the statements of people from Gamaleya to the international media, the
immunity
that would be achieved with the single dose would have a
duration of 4 to 5 months
."
On the
risk-benefit
balance
, it means that “primary immunity is of great value in terms of the course and severity of the infection, and to minimize cases requiring intensive care.
Now, is
not going to drastically cut the transmission of the virus
, "said Quarleri.
“The message I give myself is to always be cautious about the results we predict.
We believe they are good, but
we do not know anything about this clinical study that is in progress
and will end in December, apart from the fact that in the middle we will surely know interim analyzes ".
For now, Hozbor, optimistic, proposed to look at
the half-full glass of the single-dose doses
: “Every year the world administers some 3.5 billion vaccines.
Right now, taking the teenagers out, we would have to vaccinate 4 billion people against Covid.
Reaching the complete scheme would imply producing 8,000 million doses.
You have to size the situation ”.
ACE
Look also
Coronavirus: the Ministry of Health expanded the population at risk with priority to be vaccinated
Coronavirus: Argentina's vaccine contract with Russia allows Sputnik V to go "light"