Vaccination: Spain stops the shipment of vaccines to stop storing doses without pricking | Society

Four out of every five Spaniards have received at least one shot from the covid vaccine. Community warehouses store more than seven million doses to administer them to the remaining population: some five million have not yet received the first and two more are waiting to complete their schedule. But the rate of arrival of injections is already much higher than that of inoculations and the Ministry of Health has asked Pfizer to delay the shipment that it had planned for this week to next September 20. “The autonomies have plenty of roads and we have to prevent them from expiring,” explains a source from the department.

Spain is gradually approaching a point where it will be very difficult to continue advancing in vaccination. Without approved drugs for children under 12, who make up 11% of the population, the theoretical ceiling is 89%: on Monday 78.4% had received at least one dose. If these are subtracted from those who flatly reject the vaccine (about 4%, according to surveys), reluctant or hard-to-reach people, the true cap doesn’t go much beyond 80%. Although Health does not set limits and insists on continuing to vaccinate, communities such as Madrid have set a goal: to reach 90% of the target population, that is, around 80% of the total, including children.

The slowing down of the pace as you go is as inevitable as it is obvious. In the last week 1.3 million doses were administered. The peak came in early July, when four million were reached. Until August 9 there was some ups and downs, depending on the drugs that arrived, but since then it has fallen without stopping. The advance of the first doses also decreases, the most indicative to measure the response of the citizenry (presumably almost everyone who has received a vaccine is willing to receive the second): during the months of June and July Spain advanced at a rate of three percentage points of inoculated population per week. At the end of that month the speed began to slow down and in the last week the advance has not reached a point (0.8).

Faced with this reality, some communities have already begun to withdraw large vaccination infrastructures that they had set up for mass administration. It is the case of Wanda Metropolitano stadium in Madrid, which has stopped working as a vaccination point this Monday. Others continue, both in this and in other autonomous communities, but with a decreasing rate that will cause them to close their doors in the coming weeks. The Basque Country, for example, plans to close them on September 30.

What some health ministries are now reinforcing are mobile points without prior appointment to reach as many people as possible. One of the focuses of these units is the universities to attract the young population. The number of people between 20 and 40 years old who have received the first dose has been stagnant for weeks, with a very slow progress that places it at around 75%. It is less than in adolescents, who, although they started later, already touch 80% with the first puncture.

The health departments of the autonomous regions are also calling the population that has not wanted to prick themselves to remember that they can do it now, both with and without an appointment. Aragon is finalizing a strategy that involves sending SMS encouraging vaccination or giving an appointment directly (the latter for second appointments); call from the military trackers remembering the appointment; go directly to vaccinate large companies and educational centers such as the university with mobile units; enable drop-in vaccination points and reinforce messages in primary care and hospitalization to attract the unvaccinated.

Another of the communities that is setting up mobile vaccination points is Castilla-La Mancha. Its president, Emiliano García-Page, has assured this Monday that they will “go looking for it”. “It is a task that has already been carried out by a legion of trackers who politely want to help people, although there has not always been understanding,” he explained. However, according to the EFE agency, it has been highlighted that with the mobile units it is intended to go and vaccinate “where the people are”, such as university study centers or shopping centers and “finish finishing the job”, so He has indicated that now the objective set is “meticulous of excellence”.

The Ministry of Health, for its part, launched an information campaign at the beginning of the month that seeks precisely to reinforce the confidence in vaccines of the younger public that will have a presence on the internet (platforms such as Spotify, Instagram or TikTok), on television, radio and outdoor circuits such as subways, buses or universities. This same Monday, its owner, Carolina Darias, has called on twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings to go to the vaccination points, once more than 93% of those over 40 have received the complete guideline.

Third dose

In a conference on the health system organized by The Spanish, Darias has emphasized that now is the time to also look to developing countries to ensure that 40% of the world population has a complete vaccination schedule by the end of 2021. The World Health Organization (WHO) requested the last week a global moratorium so that rich countries do not inject the third dose to their citizens until this goal is reached. Some, like Israel, have already ignored this request and offered the third puncture to its entire population over 50 years.

Spain approved last week an additional dose for severely immunosuppressed people. It is a different concept than the third dose: it is not a reminder to boost immunity, it is about complete the regimen of about 100,000 patients whose immune system does not respond adequately and who with two doses remain vulnerable to serious illness and death from covid, something for which vaccines provide very good protection for the rest of the population.

A group of experts from the US drug agency and WHO has published this Monday in The Lancet a review of the available evidence for administering a third dose to the general population. They return to conclude what the experts had been warning: at the moment it does not show obvious benefits that prevent hospitalizations and deaths. “The body of evidence accumulated so far seems to show that there is no need for a third dose in the general population, because your protection against serious disease is still high”Write the authors. Health authorities around the world, including the Spanish, closely follow the evolution of immunity in vaccinated people, especially the most vulnerable, to evaluate a new puncture if necessary.

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