A new anniversary of the Covid is celebrated this Friday in Argentina, with the curve in a consolidated low, so much so that the infections have touched their
historical floor
.
Three years after the first case registered in the country, the question arises: Is it necessary to continue vaccinating the population
every four months
?
In recent days, a prestigious pulmonologist privately raised the following statement with his patients and WhatsApp contacts: "In a very recent article published in The Lancet, it is concluded that Covid infection causes protection equal to or greater than that obtained by receiving
two
messenger RNA
vaccines .
Only that it is lower for Omicron strains.
But most importantly, just like vaccines, it protects against severe Covid.
This should make the Covid vaccination scheme rethink, thus avoiding unnecessary reinforcements.
The question is: Are they really unnecessary?
The cited study in The Lancet points to
"hybrid immunity"
(natural and vaccinated) as the best strategy to deal with the disease that emerged in Wuhan today.
According to estimates by the infectologist Roberto Debbag, "90 percent of the population must have already had Covid."
How often should you continue vaccinating then to complete the other part of the combo?
The question, as always, is to balance
risks against benefits
.
And by risks, we understand here not eventual undesired effects of the vaccines, but the
sustainability of the plan
.
How many doses are not so many or so few so that the population does not get tired and give up?
What is the right balance so that health voluntarism does not damage the social disposition?
Debbag explained to
Clarín
: “You have to put it in the context of the different age groups.
Today in the world only bivalent vaccines are produced (Wuhan variant and BA.4 and BA.5 from Ómicron).
It is important to know
how many doses
patients have previously been given and
what risk group
they are in."
He continued: “The recommendation is that all people over 65 or under 65 with risk factors
receive the bivalent vaccine
, because it has been shown to lower the probability of complications and death, even in this group that was previously vaccinated with the vaccines. monovalent.
And the
possibility of reinfection
also goes down ”.
Then -Debbag added-, “the 17 million Argentines who did not receive the third dose and the 50 percent who did not receive the fourth dose should receive the bivalent.
Or even those who are in risk groups and must apply the fifth.
The fifth dose is not linked to continuous reinforcements, but to
improve the efficacy
based on what circulates ”.
Possible schema change
Could this efficacy translate into
changes in vaccination schedules
?
“The bivalent vaccines are beginning to show that the fall of antibodies
is a little slower
in people who have received previous doses or who have overcome the infection.
So the
interval between doses
is likely to start to get longer.
If this is confirmed, it is the rationale for a vaccine tailored to the variant to be applied once a year."
Regarding
who should be targeted
for an eventual annual vaccination, Debbag referred to another important point under discussion: Should populations that are not in risk groups continue to receive reinforcements against Covid?
“The objective now is not only to lower mortality, but also to lower the
morbidity of reinfections
.
It is scientifically known that people who have reinfections may be more prone to prolonged Covid, such as cognitive disorders, ”she argued.
Regarding a possible change in the current vaccination scheme, the infectologist Arnaldo Casiró considered in dialogue with
Clarín
: “It will depend on how the number of infections comes.
The idea of some is that you should get vaccinated at least once a year.
I think that with the fifth start we should see
what happens when the cold starts
and evaluate how many cases there are and with what strains, to see if it justifies continuing to apply it every four months or deferring it."
And he added: “There are not a large number of cases being seen in the Northern hemisphere, and that generally anticipates what can happen in the South.
In short, today it seems to me that we must be expectant and at the first sign of an increase in cases,
evaluate reinforcements
in vulnerable groups ”.
For his part, the infectologist Eduardo López
differentiated
what happens with the reinforcements in Argentina and in other parts of the world.
“The central countries have always vaccinated with messenger RNA vaccines, they came well vaccinated and began to receive the fourth or fifth dose with the bivalent, two months after the last dose they received.
Argentina has a problem because we have been vaccinated with different types of vaccines.
Now they are trying to
standardize that mixture
with the bivalent one”.
Regarding the efficacy of the bivalents, López said that "it is being seen that it
lasts eight months
, which together with the persistence of cellular immunity would allow it to become an
annual vaccine
suitable for the variants that are circulating."
Debbag ended with an additional prognosis: “If the World Health Organization defines the end of the pandemic or Joe Biden determines the end of the pandemic in the United States in May, the vaccines will no longer have an emergency use to go to
the
calendars officers.
There the recommendation will be an application from time to time defined”.
And he closed with no less detail: "The vaccine against Covid will no longer be free."
PS
look also
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Another official website exposes two private and sensitive data of Argentines
