Vaccini, Galli: “In Israel, cases collapse after a single dose. Ready to change your mind on the postponement of the recalls, but we need stakes”

A month and a half ago, when Pfizer and Modern they had not yet announced the cuts in deliveries of vaccines for the first quarter and serum Astrazeneca seemed the way out of the emergency by the summer, Massimo Galli was clearly against the hypothesis of postponing i recalls of the anti-Covid drug. A practice not foreseen by the protocols of pharmaceutical companies but adopted by UK e Israel, both struggling with skyrocketing infections and returning from multiple national lockdowns. “It’s something we don’t have no information, out of any rule. You actually experienced one thing in one way and for emergency reasons you are giving it in another“, Said the virologist of the Sacco hospital in Milan a Cartabianca, on Rai3. His colleague from the University of Padua also agreed with him Andrea Crisanti. But now that vaccines are in short supply and there is a risk of “a wave sustained by variations“, Galli admits he has changed his mind. “The first scientific data from Israel and they say that after the first dose there was a collapse of infections all over the country. If the result is so vast and documented, we can think about it ”, explains a Ilfattoquotidiano.it. But he warns: “Gods are needed stakes, for example guarantee the second dose to the more fragile, avoid vaccinating those who have already had the disease, groped to make gods vaccination lockdowns in the most affected areas “.

Professor Galli, why are you now considering this hypothesis?
It costs me a lot of effort to change line while running, but there is one difference compared to a month and a half ago. While the British have chosen this strategy a priori, making an unsustainable speech, (‘If you are at war, you behave like one’), there is now a measurable result. Data from Israel (published, although not yet complete) confirm that there has been a collapse in infections after the first dose. I am not saying to do just one, but at least to discuss whether postpone it compared to the protocols currently envisaged (for Pfizer the recall must be made later 21 days, for Moderna after 28 and for Astrazeneca after 10-12 weeks, ed). In this way we would have more doses to administer immediately and there would be no need for set aside those for calls. However, precise conditions must be established.

Which?
First of all, you need to decide how to deal with fragile people. I would think twice not to make the call of Pfizer and Moderna to the immunodepressi or to those with serious illnesses. Then there are the over 80: According to Israeli data, they may even receive only one dose, but some extra caution is needed. The case is different Young people, there you could decide to give only one injection and postpone the second one.

To do it after how long?
The criterion might be to check the antibody titer in citizens. Who has an immune response 20 days after the first Pfizer dose, for example, he could skip the protocol appointment on the 21st day and do it later. We must evaluate and to monitor the antibody titer. And you could do the same with who he is already healed from Covid, so as to avoid injecting the vaccine and save doses for other people. I’ve been saying this for months, but they don’t listen to me about this.

In essence, she says: since we have few vaccines, we postpone the recall for the youngest and do not administer it at all to those who have already contracted the virus. But isn’t there a risk that once the antibodies have disappeared, people will be reinfected?
Studies show that the immunological memory also remains in 8 months from the disease. And the scientists didn’t go further in their estimates simply because the pandemic started a year ago. This is demonstrated by the fact that many vaccinates who tested positive in the past have nevertheless had a surge in antibodies very strong immediately after injection. Obviously everything should be done with great caution, but the time has come to open the discussion.

If Italy decided to do like the UK and Israel, would AIFA need a green light?
I think in that case he should discuss it Scientific technical committee, various health and logistical assessments should be made. I just express myself an aperturist opinion. We are faced with the risk of a wave supported by variants, which by their nature do not tend to limit themselves but to do the opposite. We need to vaccinate quickly. So you have to do virtue of necessity. And then I begin to think that it would be important to vaccinate not only for layers of the population, but also by areas.

What do you mean?
The cases of Brescia, Perugia, the lower Molise show that there are areas where the virus is running more, favored by the variants. Here, the vaccination strategy could be readjusted on a double track: on the one hand, going forward by layers, thus securing the most fragile, the immunosuppressed, the elderly. But at the same time administer multiple doses in the geographic areas most affected and in the neighboring territories. In this way it would be possible to ‘hold back’ Covid-19 (and its mutations).

In practice, do you propose a “virus lockdown”?
That’s right, I’d call it a smart vaccine lockdown. Quit the virus and not just people. Of course, the operation should go through local lockdowns. Buffers for everyone and vaccines for everyone, but then it can be reopened. In the meantime it is possible to slow down the race of variants and prevent them from spreading. This reasoning, however, has a limit, namely that of children.

These days indeed School closures are multiplying throughout Italy due to infections. But is it really the only solution?
The biggest obstacle to this whole situation is that there is currently no coronavirus vaccine for children. So the virus inevitably runs between schools, especially with the English variant. But if you shelter parents and teachers, however, you get a first result. And then the rule of screening in mass: you have to do tests, tests and tests, not just close. For example by doing the salivaries to carpet. The goal must always be to control and contain the epidemic, do not close schools.

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