For Fernán Quirós, it is ‘unwise’ to change the methodology of vaccines against the coronavirus

The public comings and goings of the national government regarding the vaccination plan in Argentina against the coronavirus, which began at the end of December with Sputnik V developed by Russia, added uncertainty in the population regarding the official plan on the management of the pandemic.

In that sense, the one who spoke this Wednesday was the Buenos Aires Minister of Health, Fernán Quirós, who was clear about the methodology for applying vaccines against Covid-19.

“To be very clear with the public, it is quite clear that the vaccines have been experimentally evaluated in phase 3 with a specific application methodology. It has been done very quickly, phases 3 are not even finished, they are still running. It seems unwise to me to change the application mode. It is preferable to comply with the vaccination schedules as they were investigated in phase 3, “he said.

The official thus referred to the government’s backtracking regarding the possibility of applying the first dose of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and deferring the second, to achieve a greater number of immunized before March, as revealed by the Secretary of Access to Health , Carla Vizzotti, in an interview in the newspaper Página 12.

However, the controversy that sparked this possibility forced the official to clarify, via Twitter, that the original scheme of an initial dose and the complementary one after 21 days will be respected.

Quirós clarified that there is “a debate in some countries, specifically in the United States and England, about how to administer the vaccines” available, but that it is precisely in “vaccines that have both doses with the same component, unlike Sputnik V which the first dose has a different component from the second dose so this debate does not apply to this vaccine. ”

Speaking of the Russian vaccine, he revealed that the City will receive next week “the second component of these 300 thousand doses that we have received” of the Russian vaccine. “We will be finishing in the next few days the vaccination campaign for the first 21 thousand doses that corresponded to the City for health workers,” he explained.

In that sense, he remarked that “the initial item distributed by Nación is only for health workers and those who are on the front line.” And he clarified: “As the Nation opens up more new vaccines to us and indicates which groups are continuing, we are going to open the vaccination plan.”

Regarding the acceptance of the vaccine in hospitals, he pointed out that it is “heterogeneous.” And he explained: “There are groups that have accepted intensely and others that have done so to a lesser extent, both public and private. We are going to continue offering the vaccine because acceptance is voluntary.”

News in development.

JPE