Home » Health » “Astrazeneca is a good vaccine, but Pfizer or Moderna is better for young people” (VIDEO)

“Astrazeneca is a good vaccine, but Pfizer or Moderna is better for young people” (VIDEO)

A seminar to take stock, a year and a half after the outbreak of the pandemic, on the clinical response to covid 19 and related issues, from epidemiology to health organization, to vaccinations. The up to date organized by the Magna Graecia University involved all the actors involved in the field in the fight against the coronavirus, doctors from the Pugliese hospital, the Mater Domini polyclinic and the territory.

The heads of the infectious disease wards of the two hospitals in Catanzaro spoke about the experiences acquired in hospital treatment and new therapeutic protocols, starting with the use of monoclonal antibodies.

Torti: Trust in monoclonals, now boost your health system

A lot of progress has been made in this year and a half, and the most important one is in the vaccination field, and this has made it possible to prevent the disease, prevent deaths and fortunately have the wards almost empty ”, according to prof. Carlo Torti, head of Infectious Diseases of the “Mater Domini”, according to whom the therapeutic approach has also improved a lot: “We understood that therapy must be early – explains – and now we have the monoclonal antibodies, which are effective if started as soon as possible, precisely to prevent all those other devastating consequences due to infection, especially in the most fragile patients. These therapies can also be done at home. the patient comes to the hospital, gives the infusion which lasts one hour, stays under observation for another hour and then returns home. With regard to hospital therapy we have made a selection of different drugs that over time we have understood that little or no use is needed, and we have therefore focused on some therapeutic aids such as cortisone drugs, such as Remdesivir, other immuno-modulating drugs will also arrive. in addition to Tocilizumab. We have more weapons and we know how to use them much better. The main advance is the preventive one with vaccinations. Hospitals are now quite free and we are reorganizing to collect other types of patients that so far we have literally abandoned with infectious diseases, we will then need to create double paths so that no one is ever abandoned, in patients with covid or infectious patients without covid. There is a lot to do but the current situation, as far as covid is concerned, is more serene ”.

According to prof. Torti “the covid has taught the importance of strengthening individual structures, but also of strengthening the health system in integrations between different structures, both hospital and territorial. There are health models that in my opinion should be considered as, for example, that ofExpanded chronic care model, a model in which the health system revolves around the citizen and does not abandon him, holding him by the hand, passing from one service to another as needed. It is necessary to systematize the existing structures and make them a system capable of interacting, a well-coordinated organism. It is the coordination that makes the system. Then structures must be strengthened both as spaces and with personnel, stabilizing the young. All those problematic situations that we knew to be present have worsened with the covid, we must solve these problems now, we cannot wait for another pandemic to arrive”.

Cosco: Well the doctors during the pandemic, minus the support of the Region

For Dr. Lucio Cosco, head of the infectious diseases department of the “Pugliese” hospital, “the therapeutic approach in the management of patients with covid has changed in the sense that we know better when to intervene and how to intervene. The real discriminating factor in covid patient care is timeliness of the same. The sooner you approach the patient who needs treatment, obviously the better, because in this way the inflammatory phase is prevented from making the pathology go on ”.

According to Cosco, the arrival of the covid variants influenced not the severity of the disease, which remains unchanged, but the age of the patients: “Young people are certainly more represented in recent months, I hope that vaccines can decrease the various components that lead to the hospitalization of patients “.

According to Cosco, the pandemic was dealt with very well by doctors in Calabria: “Unfortunately – he admits – we were not adequately supported by the regional organization. I hope this serves above all to the political class to take more account of our suggestions ”. Cosco refers in particular to the management of additional covid beds and to other technical indications from operators in the field.

Longhini: Ecmo treated patients from other regions

In his speech, prof. Federico Longhini, head of the covid intensive care unit of the Polyclinic, highlighted how “admission to intensive care is often a failure of the previous phases. For all pathologies, not just for covid, hospitalization in intensive care is always extreme in severity of the pathology. Unfortunately, with the covid we have seen an increase in these admissions to intensive care, and many times patients also arrive with treatments done before admission when these should be done within a hospitalization. Many times patients arrive with delays in accessing the hospital because they are afraid of going to the hospital. My invitation to those who have symptoms related to the covid not to wait, of refer to your GP or to the emergency room in case of more important symptoms “.

“The resuscitation of the polyclinic – recalled Longhini – has tried in recent months to satisfy the needs of the whole Calabria region and also of some patients from other regions, from Campania, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Puglia, due to the peculiarity of the availability ofecmo (the machinery for extracorporeal circulation ed). To date we have treated almost 90 patients, a good number for our facility. It was a very difficult period, especially from October with the second and third waves, in which almost the entire mountain range of the region was concentrated. The collaboration with all the hospitals in the Calabria region was fundamental, and all the resuscitations of the Calabrian network which ensured collaboration and support ”.

Noble: Zero risk for mRna vaccines, the third dose will be needed

To reassure the use of the Astrazeneca vaccine prof. Carmelo Nobile, director of the Hygiene Unit of the polyclinic: “It is a good vaccine, which has been poorly presented. There have been some events, infinitesimal in relation to covid deaths and the possibility of becoming ill with covid. But we have other vaccines that certainly cause fewer problems in the youth groups compared to Astrazeneca, therefore administration of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines is preferable. Surely in the young age groups the use of these aa mRna vaccines is more recommended than adenovirus vaccines such as Astrazeneca or Johnson & Johnson, but they are all vaccines that can save us from hospitalization and illness “.

According to prof. Nobile are unfounded fears about any long-term effects of vaccinations with the most innovative serums such as Pfizer and Moderna, due to the short experimental phase: “The mRna vaccines do not leave any residue inside our body because they are prepared entirely in the laboratory, so they do not create any problems for our cells, they do not replicate inside our cells, but simply stimulate the antibodies against the spike protein which is that of the virus. Therefore they are able to induce an antigenic action and to stimulate the antibody system. Then the risk is absolutely zero on mutations and more affecting our cells. The only problem is that probably the immunity towards this micro organism is not very long, and it is expected that after 9/12 months from the end of the vaccination cycle we will probably have to undergo a booster dose, the so-called third dose that General Figliolo has already announced that he has made an option for next winter ”.

The professor. Finally, Nobile excludes the possibility that vaccinated subjects could become ill with covid: “A vaccinated subject can become infected, but we know that in these cases the disease presents at most flu-like symptoms, and does not end up in hospital, except for the so-called ‘non-responders’ who after vaccination they do not produce antibodies. Generally in the vaccinated, the disease presents itself in a very slight form and hospitalization is not necessary “.

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