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The Institute of Public Health has authorized this afternoon the use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by the laboratories Pfizer and BioNTech in Chile.
In the discussion, where were they involved 22 doctors of different specialties and pharmaceutical chemists and that began today at 8.30 am, the approval of the vaccine for its exceptional use was voted unanimously by the sanitary urgency.
“This commission of experts pronounces favorably on the request for authorization of exceptional use due to sanitary urgency requested for the BNT 162b2 vaccine presented by Laboratorio Pfizer,” Caroline Weinstein, member of the group of external experts, said at the meeting, after her presentation when analyzing the studies and scopes that have been made regarding the Pfizer vaccine.
In addition to this, the committee of experts also voted the age from which the population can be vaccinated, agreeing that, based on existing studies, the Chilean population can be inoculated from 16 years of age.
Heriberto García Escorza, director (s) of the Institute of Public Health of Chile, highlighted this milestone that was reached in the country, indicating that this “arduous analysis” began in Chile on November 27, when Pfizer’s background information arrived at country.
“Today the committee of experts analyzed super relevant matters, such as whether Chile was prepared or not in logistics to receive vaccines,” he said. “The good news is that Chile is ready: Chile today has an adequate system to receive vaccines that has such complex logistics to be able to vaccinate the population ”.
In addition to this, he added, it was also important to know if Chile was prepared for the necessary pharmacovigilance after vaccination of people.
“Chile is at the forefront today and we are very happy with this good news,” he said.
Unlike the United States, in Chile this is not called as “Emergency approval” if not “Application for provisional authorization”. This is a mechanism that is determined in article 99 of the Sanitary Code and that It is used to cover an urgent need of a collective nature, derived from a situation of shortage or inaccessibility of a specific pharmacological resource: the urgent need to protect the Chilean population against Covid-19.
After authorization, the resolution is carried out, which can take a couple of days. With this resolution, the laboratory can just import the vaccines by presenting the document to Customs.
According to García, they expect to issue the official resolution “from today, at the latest tomorrow.”
With this milestone, it will be possible to begin vaccinating in our country against Covid-19, thus joining the list of countries that have already approved it:
Last Friday, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the emergency authorization for the use of the vaccine in that country, thus becoming the fifth country in the world to approve its use, after the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada and Saudi Arabia.
This week Singapore, Costa Rica and Panama they also authorized the use of this vaccine in their population.
With the approval it is expected that the first batch of doses arrives in Chile in one more week, that is, around next Wednesday 23. If these dates are met, the start of vaccination would begin on Thursday 24 and Friday 25 December.
According to estimates, the amount that would arrive would be less than 30 thousand vaccinesThat is, it would be enough for about 15 thousand people, understanding that two doses are necessary for inoculation.
On who will be the first vaccinated, due to the strong outbreaks of coronavirus that currently exist in the south of the country, It has been proposed to start a vaccination against the coronavirus in this territory on a par with the Metropolitan area.
How these doses should be stored and distributed – which should be kept at a temperature of -70 ° C –
it requires more complex logistics than traditional vaccines. In Chile, preparations began in August to face three challenges that are presented: the volume of vaccines to be transported, the temperature required and the level of service required.
The pharmaceutical Pfizer and BioNTech Since 2018 they have been working on a vaccine against the influenza virus, the same basis that they have used in the development of this vaccine.
When the SARS-CoV-2 virus enters a person’s body, it uses its genetic material (mRNA) to enter the human cell, replicate in it and produce protein S (Spike), which is what it adheres to. cells to continue infecting. In this case, what the scientists did is “trick” the organism, and for that, they created a synthetic mRNA, similar to that of the coronavirus, but now it will produce a protein that instead of spreading it will stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.
According to experts, these vaccines are safe since they do not use the complete virus, so there is no risk of developing the disease.
