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FROM OUR REPORT Gainsville (Florida) Ilaria Capua She opens the door to the cabin in a residential area of Gainesville, where she lives with her husband and daughter. Here, in the heart of this serene state, one of the main battlegrounds in the presidential elections, is the headquarters of the University of Florida where he works, a blue dot (democratic) surrounded by a red sea (Trumpland). The laboratories – explains the Italian virologist – have slowed down the work, it is impossible to respect the distance. An hour from here, Trump held one of his last rallies, where many participants were without masks, in a state where 20.5% of the population is over 65 years old. Trump had announced that the vaccine would arrive for the elections, yesterday Fauci explained that we may know if it is effective for December. Capua says he does not expect it to arrive anytime soon, and invites us to remember – as the White House virologist himself did – that initially the doses will remain insufficient for everyone.
How long will it take and what are the obstacles?
“Think about the flu vaccine: we know how to make and distribute it, but you can’t find it. At this time of crisis, it is not possible to increase the doses of the flu vaccine to produce enough. To date, first of all, there is no vaccine for Covid; second, we are not sure that those in development are effective; Third, we don’t even know if efficacy can be achieved with one dose or if more will be needed, because some coronaviruses are bad immunogens. In addition, there are bottlenecks linked to the fact that the companies that produce the vaccines have a pipeline or forced production steps. A pastry chef who bakes 100 cakes a day can make 500, but not 5 million. If the world can produce a hundred million doses per unit of time, we are still seven billion, and it is fair that the doses for hospital workers and essential transport are guaranteed, because if they stop everything stops again, and obviously for people more fragile. When vaccines are ready and licensed, and the efficacy and safety characteristics are known, they should be administered in an organized manner. I am sure that, as many countries have made plans for this, Italy will follow European and international guidelines. But people must understand that in the first round there will not be enough for everyone.
In the meantime, what should be done?
“Three things: first, get herd immunity by spinning the virus slowly, because if we spin too fast, instead of herd immunity we will have dead sheep. We must move away and distance ourselves so that the contagion rate is low, keep the viral circulation below the threshold and immunize ourselves slowly. Then the vaccine will make its contribution. These convergences mean that there will be a point at which the infection will be endemic. When this balance between circulating virus and antibodies is created, Covid is blocked as soon as it comes into contact with a person. In a few years it will become, I hope, the new cold virus.
Is Trump immune now?
“Now it goes because it is protected, the monoclonals they manufacture are a protective drug as well as a therapeutic one.
Trump says “it will last a lifetime or maybe four months.”
“They gave him a very powerful treatment, with monoclonals, in addition to antivirals, cortisone and supportive therapy. That monoclonal antibody, Regeneron, is like a baseball glove or a surface-to-air missile, they did 8 grams, a big dose. It is a molecule that does not reproduce in the body, which breaks down after a couple of months, but in my opinion it is protected from now until January ».
Trump said he wants to speed up approval by the FDA, the federal drug agency.
“It takes time and all the papers have to stay in place. But it also costs an arm and a leg, on the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars. ”
October 27, 2020 (change October 27, 2020 | 07:45)
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