"The possibility of using AstraZeneca for everyone on a voluntary basis is not an invention of the Regions or of some Doctor Strangelove: it is a suggestion that comes from the highest technical-scientific bodies to increase vaccinations, and therefore to avoid more deaths". Thus the president of Liguria Giovanni Toti invites us to "not loot" the death after the AstraZeneca vaccine of 18-year-old Ligurian
Camilla Canepa
. "It is the moment of responsibility and clarity: it is up to doctors and scientists to establish the possible link between the vaccine, other drugs taken and all the circumstances that led to this tragic event".
The expected opinion of the Technical Scientific Committee (CTS) on the use of the AstraZeneca (AZ) anti-Covid vaccine for young people aged 18 and over will consider the indications already given by the Ministry of Health and the Italian Medicines Agency Aifa, or that for this immunizer a preferential use is recommended for subjects over-60. In these hours there would be a convergence to "recommend" the Anglo-Swedish vaccine to this category. A decision that reopens the debate on the possibility of administering a different dose (so-called 'heterologous') to those under 60 who received the first with Astrazeneca and on the evaluation of the timing of the recall.The experts are now making a summary of their opinions which - as far as has been learned - would go towards an overall reorganization of the vaccination campaign, therefore also of the administration of the different types of vaccines according to age, in light of the changed epidemiological framework. But the decisions to be taken will still be entirely up to politics. Health Minister Roberto Speranza himself anticipates the line, but in the meantime it is 'chaos' in the Regions, which are proceeding in no particular order, while various experts indicate to complete the vaccination cycle with AstraZeneca anyway if a first dose has already been had. . The question arose following the open days organized by various Regions with the AZ vaccine and also open to young people from 18 years of age,and after two cases of rare thrombosis have occurred in the past few weeks in young women. In this regard, responding to the question time in the Senate, Speranza stressed that on 7 April the ministry, with a circular, "has already recommended the preferential use of the AZ vaccine to over-60s and Aifa reiterated that the benefit profile- risk is more conducive to increasing age ". These assessments, he anticipated, "will certainly be considered in the next CTS opinion". However, all vaccines are "safe and effective", the minister specified.preferential use of the AZ vaccine for over-60s and Aifa reiterated that the benefit-risk profile is more favorable to increasing age ". These assessments, he anticipated," will certainly be considered in the next CTS opinion. "All vaccines however, they are "safe and effective", the minister specified.preferential use of the AZ vaccine for over-60s and Aifa reiterated that the benefit-risk profile is more favorable to increasing age ". These assessments, he anticipated," will certainly be considered in the next CTS opinion. "All vaccines however, they are "safe and effective", the minister specified.
But on the vaccination of adolescents who have had the first dose with Astrazeneca now remains the crux of the booster, that is the question of which immunizer to use for the second dose in young people already vaccinated with the same vaccine. On this point, various experts say they are in favor of completing the vaccination cycle with AZ anyway. "At this moment, those who have made the first dose with a vaccine should do the second dose with the same vaccine. This is because the experimental tests that led to the approval of these vaccines were made on the administration of two doses for the same vaccine. vaccine and have demonstrated adequate conditions of safety and protection ", said Walter Ricciardi, consultant to the Minister of Health. Along the same lines, the virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco and the infectious disease specialist Massimo Andreoni,according to which the rare adverse events occurred essentially after the first dose and the risk is very low. Confirmation comes from the 5th AIFA Pharmacovigilance Report on Covid Vaccines: the cases of intracranial and atypical venous thrombosis in subjects vaccinated with AZ are in line with what has been observed at European level, i.e. 1 case for every 100,000 first doses administered and mainly in people with less than 60 years. No cases were reported after the second dose. Overall, for all vaccines, there are 66,258 reports of adverse events out of a total of 32,429,611 doses administered (reporting rate of 204 per 100,000 doses), of which 90% for non-serious events. Most concern Pfizer's Comirnaty (71.8%), the most used (68.7% of the doses administered).