Another booster after the third dose of covid vaccine? More no than yes, judging by the opinions expressed by the experts. Current mRna vaccines ensure high protection against the Omicron variant after the third dose. Ordinary courses of vaccination have shown a progressive decline in the efficacy of vaccines. In the background, there are 500,000 fourth doses already administered in Israel. “You can’t force 50 million people to have the fourth or fifth vaccination, there has to be a strategy. There is no health system that can support the effort to vaccinate 50 million people every 4 months,” he says. the professor Andrea Crisanti at Agora.
“These vaccines – he explains – have been a phenomenal contribution to stop the epidemic and allow us to lead a normal life. The limits shown by these vaccines underline the urgency to change strategy in the medium term: we need to invest and develop vaccines that have a duration higher, cost less and have intellectual property that belongs to the states. There can be no differences between countries like the current ones, which are unacceptable “.
“I can think that the administration of a possible fourth dose of the anti-Covid vaccine could be useful to people with significant frailties who, in a documented way, have not responded to the third dose. The response of fragile categories to vaccination should be evaluated,” he says. ‘Adnkronos Health Massimo Galli, former director of Infectious Diseases at the Sacco hospital in Milan
“The countries that start administering a fourth dose will give us data before the others. Let’s see what will happen and from this information we can make suggestions. But a strategy like this, on the spot, without having other data”, according to the expert “it does not make sense”.
“In my opinion at this moment, especially in Europe, there is no need to think about the fourth dose” of the anti-Covid vaccine. “We need to complete the third dose and see what happens. We are moving towards a spring season and we need to see what it will be like from an epidemiological point of view,” he tells Adnkronos Salute è Massimo Clementi, director of the Laboratory of Microbiology and Virology of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University of Milan.
“Let’s face the spring with the third dose, because that is important – he underlines – After that, it seems a bit premature to me to decide now to do a fourth dose with the same vaccine used up to now”, he observes. “Because next winter we will most likely have to face it with a different vaccine, with a vaccine that is built on the variant that will circulate. If it is Omicron, a vaccine for Omicron. Or otherwise against the variant that will be. We must now arrive at a style logic. flu, for vaccination “, concludes the expert. In fact, against seasonal viruses, vaccines are calibrated from season to season on the viral strains in circulation.
“The fourth dose they’re proposing is still on the original Wuhan virus strain, but that protein hasn’t existed for a year and a half,” he notes. Massimo Ciccozzi, Head of the Medical Statistics and Epidemiology Unit of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Bio-Medico Campus of Rome.
“It is true that thank goodness the data tell us – emphasizes Ciccozzi – that with three doses that vaccine still works, but I am opposed to having a vaccine every 4 months because – says the expert – the immune system is stressed, too. The basic immunologist knows. Why do I have to do this? Unless you offer me an up-to-date vaccine on the Omicron and Delta variants. “
The fourth dose “now is not needed” for Mauro Pistello, director of the virology unit of the Pisan university hospital. According to the expert, there are several reasons to slow down on a new booster: “You are still vaccinating with the third dose or recovering the first ones – he explains – Furthermore, as already mentioned by the EMA, it is necessary to monitor the effects of a stimulation of the immune system. so close, and then in March we would have vaccines adapted to the variants “.
“Maybe – he suggests – we can think of monitoring the territory and understand if among those hospitalized there are increasing immunosuppressed patients or those who are vaccinated. At that point we could think of a new recall to put them in safety. But let’s wait”.
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