Vaccine for vaccination: These are the risk groups that have priority – What applies to pregnant women | HELLAS

LSE health policy professor Elias Mosialos reported on covid-19 vaccines and their effectiveness in people with underlying diseases, in a Facebook post.

At the same time, Mr. Mosialos analyzes the valid ones for vaccinating pregnant women, while also listing high-risk groups.

Elias Mosialos’ post in detail:

While waiting for the approval of vaccines from the European Medicines Agency, many friends wonder about the priority groups in vaccines, but also about the particular characteristics of those who may be excluded. However, the available data do not indicate a concern for the safety or side effects of vaccines.

I have already referred to the UK vaccination guidelines for pregnant women and children under 12 years of age. Since pregnant women and young children were not included in clinical trials, there is no scientific knowledge or evidence of a risk of vaccination during pregnancy.

After infection with the new coronavirus, almost all children have an asymptomatic infection or mild illness. There are very limited data on vaccination in adolescents and we do not have data on vaccination in younger children. For teens ages 12 to 18, clinical trials are underway and we will have safety and efficacy data soon.

The UK guidelines for pregnant women recommend:

• Postpone vaccination until the pregnancy is complete.
• If a woman discovers she is pregnant after taking the first dose to complete her pregnancy before taking the second dose.
• New mothers who breastfeed can be vaccinated.
• Pregnant women who are considered to be in a high risk group, due to other health factors, should be vaccinated as soon as possible after the end of the pregnancy.

For what other years and not illnesses do we have data from the advertisements of the clinical trial companies?

As for the elderly, as announced by Pfizer / BioNTech, the efficiency in adults older than 65 years was greater than 94%.

In early September, Pfizer / BioNTech announced that they had requested an extension of the phase II / III clinical trial, from 30,000 to 44,000 participants, from the FDA because they had many volunteers willing to participate. This expansion has allowed companies to include adolescents up to 16 years of age and people with chronic but stable HIV (the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS), hepatitis C or hepatitis B. So we know that among these 14,000 additional volunteers there are and some adolescents of 16-18 years and patients with the mentioned diseases. We will await scientific publications for in-depth analyzes and more details.

The Moderna Phase III clinical trial, according to the company, also included groups of citizens at high risk of serious complications from COVID-19. We know that the study included more than 7,000 Americans older than 65 and more than 5,000 Americans younger than 65 but with chronic conditions.

These vulnerable volunteers made up 42% of the participants in the phase III study (about 15% had diabetes, 10.5% had severe obesity, about 8% had severe heart disease, about 7.6% had pneumonia severe and nearly 1% liver disease). The safety data and the effectiveness of the vaccine have been verified and, as I mentioned before, we will await the scientific publications for more details.

We now know that some underlying health conditions increase the risk of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19.

In the UK, which is preparing for vaccination, the committee’s advice to priority groups has already been announced. Among them are people aged 65 and over with no underlying diseases, followed by people in high-risk groups aged 16 and over.

The risk groups identified by the committee are listed below:

• Chronic respiratory disease, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cystic fibrosis, and severe asthma.
• chronic heart disease (and vascular disease)
• chronic kidney disease
• chronic liver disease
• chronic neurological disease including epilepsy
• Down’s Syndrome
• severe learning disability
• diabetes
• solid, bone marrow and stem cell transplant recipients
• some cancer patients
• immunosuppression due to disease or treatment
• asplenia and splenic dysfunction
• severe obesity
• severe mental illness

and we look forward to further clarification on these categories in the coming weeks. When they are announced I will make another post.

All countries are preparing for the next vaccinations and it is expected that very soon we will have more details about the relative risk between the previous ones, but also other groups with chronic diseases. I am referring to relevant scientific publications resulting from analyzes of groups of patients with other diseases that are not listed above. At the moment, the decisions of the European Medicines Agency for the first two vaccines are a priority.