[ad_1]
The vaccination campaign continues not without obstacles, starting with the logistical distribution of the doses to end with the risk of finding oneself ‘chasing’ the variants of the virus if sufficient herd immunity is not reached quickly.
AstraZeneca, another delay
The European Commission does not deny that AstraZeneca announced its intention to cut deliveries of anti-Covid vaccines also for the second quarter of 2021, cutting them in half, as Reuters reported last night. “Discussions with AstraZeneca on the delivery schedule continue – a Commission spokesperson responds to the confirmation request – the company is reviewing the schedule and consolidating it, based on all available production sites, in Europe and abroad . The Commission looks forward to a proposal for an improved timetable ”.
AstraZeneca had already halved, from 80 to 40 million doses (initially to 31 million, then returned to 40 million after the Commission’s reaction), the delivery of doses to the EU planned for the first quarter, motivating them with an unspecified production. problems (apparently this is an adenovirus “culture” problem at the Belgian Hénogen / Novasep plant) with no guarantee for the second quarter. Now the confirmation has arrived that the cut of supply of the Anglo-Swedish multinational will also affect the second quarter. And it seems heavy: as reported by Reuters, deliveries should go from 180 million to less than 90 million. AstraZeneca was central to the EU vaccine program, but delivery delays are slowing down vaccination programs in several member countries, including Italy. And now it is no longer possible to exclude that the EU could turn to Russia for the Sputnik V vaccine, which has given very high efficacy evidence.
Vaccinations in Italy?
The above problems led the new government, and in particular the Council’s predictor Mario draghi, to work on the hypothesis of enabling the production of vaccine vials in the national territory.
“Do we need to organize vaccine production in Italy? Although it is clearly no longer the way to face this first vaccination campaign, the answer is still yes ”. The immunologist from the University of Padua is convinced of this Antonella Viola, among the first to support the need to contribute as a country to the manufacture of anti-Covid vaccines.
“If we had organized ourselves 4 months ago, today we would probably be in a position to produce part of the doses we need – he stresses in a post on Facebook – but we must not think that it is too late. Vaccines will have to be updated, it may be necessary to vaccinate several times (such as for influenza), and production needs to be increased even for the poorest countries. That is why it is important to participate in the development and production of vaccines ”.
Variant vaccine update
And here we enter precisely the nightmare variants, with all the doubts of the case regarding vaccines. “At the moment, we have found four different variants, he explains Marcello tavio, President of SIMIT – Italian Society for Infectious and Tropical Diseases – Firstly, the English variant, predominant in Ireland and the United Kingdom, also widespread in Italy in patches of spots, is characterized by higher levels of contagion, with a increase in serious cases and deaths; vaccines are just as effective. The situation is different for South African and Brazilian women and for a variant of the English variant, characterized by a mutation in the E484K position that confers strong similarities with the previous two: in these last three variants the effectiveness of the vaccine is decreased. Therefore, it is essential to do everything possible to limit the spread of the virus as much as possible: if circulation is reduced, the variants automatically decrease. In the near future, new generations of vaccines will take these variants into account. Regarding the efficacy of monoclonal antibodies, some unpublished data suggest the hypothesis of a lower efficacy against variants. Therefore, the pharmaceutical industry must take measures to guarantee that these valuable tools also adapt to the new needs ”.
as well Noubar Afeyan, co-founder and president of Modern, look in the direction of vaccination updates. “After the sequencing of Sars-CoV-2, in January 2020, we finished the vaccine in two weeks. An unprecedented result. Before the appearance of a new variant of the virus, it can be changed in the same time, two weeks or less. We are already working on it and the study on volunteers is about to start. The situation regarding the approval times is different: a certain number of cases of variant infections are needed to be able to carry out the tests ”.
[ad_2]
