drop

The most widespread impression among health professionals in the region is that this fall there will be a notable drop in demand for the covid vaccine, which in Asturias begins to be applied today, Monday. In the opinion of specialists, It would not be strange if the coverage of protection against the flu also decreased. Last season, both were administered simultaneously to a high portion of the population aged 60 and older and to numerous people with some risk factor, with a very proactive patient recruitment strategy. This circumstance, without a doubt, increased the influx of users.

This fall, starting today, the two jabs will be applied together to the population aged 75 and older and to people “with great immunosuppression” (with their body’s defenses greatly reduced). Meanwhile, The rest of the target population will only be offered the flu test. “With this delay, it is easy for quite a few people to end up rejecting the covid vaccination,” a person with good knowledge of the health reality of the Principality explained to this newspaper yesterday.

On the other hand, it is evident that society’s concern about respiratory infections has greatly decreased compared to previous autumns. Although it is true – and visible to anyone – that infections of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus have increased in recent weeks, the reality is that serious cases do not seem to be proliferating. On the other hand, summer temperatures like these these days tend to accentuate relaxation. The consequence of all this is that the search for protection decreases.

The delay with which those under 75 years of age will be summoned to be vaccinated against covid is striking when the Ministry of Health, in agreement with the rest of the health authorities, has been proclaiming for weeks that the joint injection against flu and covid-19 is recommended for people aged 60 years or older “due to the greater risk of complications or symptoms serious if you suffer from these infections.

Last fall, between September and December, 322,799 booster anti-Covid doses were administered in Asturias, all of them from the bivalent Pfizer vaccine. In the first quarter of this year 2023, almost 27,000 more were applied, making a total of 349,597 punctures. Coverage rates were 86 percent in the age group 80 and older; 81 percent in the 70 to 79 group; and 69 percent among the population between 60 and 69 years old.

The adapted vaccine against covid-19 that is currently available in Spain is “Comirnaty Omicron XBB.1.5”, with formulations indicated for people aged 12 and over, 5-11 years and 6-59 months respectively . Likewise, the vaccine “Bimervax” (Hipra) is available for those who cannot receive messenger RNA vaccines. Vaccination against covid-19 will be carried out “with the new adapted mRNA vaccines, except in particular circumstances,” states the vaccination guide published by the Ministry of Health.

Regarding influenza, 294,683 doses of vaccine were administered in the region last fall. Of them, 201,937 were administered to people aged 65 and older. This figure implies a coverage rate among that age group of 75.1 percent, slightly higher than the 75 percent that had been stipulated as the campaign’s objective. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Asturias – like many other territories – was for several years below 65 percent flu vaccine coverage among those over 65 years of age. The reason was obvious: the older population had lost its fear of the flu.

What continues at a low level is flu vaccination among health center staff. Last fall, 8,829 doses were administered to this group. At that time, more than 20,000 personnel were part of the staff of the Principality’s Health Service (Sespa), including permanent, interim and temporary personnel, which places coverage comfortably below 50 percent.

Vulnerability to covid mutations depends on previous infections and the vaccine

Agencies

A person’s immune response to variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, depends on their previous exposure, and differences in the approach to immune responses will help scientists understand how to optimize vaccines in the future to provide extensive protection. A study published in the journal “Science” has found that people’s vulnerability to different mutations of emerging variants of the virus differs because the variant to which a person was exposed in the first place determines the response of their immune system to the different parts of the virus and their degree of protection against other variants. It also means that the same Covid vaccine may act differently in different people, depending on which variants they have previously been exposed to and where their immune response has been focused. The discovery underscores the importance of continuing surveillance programs to detect the emergence of new variants and understand differences in immunity in the population. It will also be important for future vaccination strategies, which must take into account both the virus variant contained in a vaccine and how the population’s immune responses may differ in their response to it.

2023-10-09 02:02:13
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