Virologist Luis Enjuanes advocates reinstating restrictions against Covid: “This is crazy”

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Covid.

The Spanish vaccine that wants to be an anti-variant shield

• Editor:
  CRISTINA G. LUCIO
  Madrid

—The Spanish vaccine that wants to be an anti-variant shield

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The researcher explained that in summer the virus “loses infectivity” due to the high temperatures, but that it is also the time when “it is more easily contaminated” for not wearing the mask on the street, at festivals or nightclubs. In fact, each day spent at 37 degrees they lose 10 times their infectivity, which is added to the fact that ultraviolet rays and the greater number of hours of sunlight also inactivate the virus and “that works in our favor”.

However, in his opinion, “we are undervaluing the virus” since the number of infected fluctuates between 500/1,000 per 100,000 inhabitants and, to enter the control zone, “we should have between 20 and 40 infected.”

As for the risk of reinfection, the virology expert wanted to remind that, despite the fact that the virus is “attenuating”, even those who have received the three doses of the vaccines can be reinfected. This is because current vaccines, which are administered intramuscularly, “have a very low effectiveness on mucous membranes” and a “short-lived” immunity in them. In fact, he has detailed that if there is no local immunization in the mucosa where the virus is going to infect, 98% of vaccination efficacy is lost.

“People who have been immunized three times are not only infected, it is amplifies the virus and spreads it again“, pointed out the expert, who maintains that right now, mass immunization theories “do not count” and “other mathematics” must be done.

A “very promising” vaccine

In this line, he has pointed out that the intranasal vaccine that your department is preparing “is very promising” since it will be administered in this way because “if you do not immunize locally in the mucosa where the virus is going to infect, 98% of vaccination efficacy is lost”, although it does not confirm a precise date for their departure because “we need to increase production efficiency, adapt it to GMP standards, good manufacturing practices, and optimize yields.”

Regarding vaccination, the expert pointed out that in Spain “we have a very good situation in terms of acceptance of vaccines” and added that “we have no other choice” given that “the immunity that they have induced in our respiratory tract It’s very short.”

In addition, it emphasizes the need for older people to acquire the booster dose: “If a person between 18-50 years of age responds with an effectiveness of 90%, a person over 65 years of age has an effectiveness of 35/40.” %” and points out that if as of October there was already a form of intranasal administration “the effectiveness of the vaccines would jump up with great power”.

Enjuanes cannot predict when the peak of the seventh wave will be reached because “guessing the future is difficult” and the virus “as it goes up, it goes down”. However, he points out that we will reach the maximum peak and the plateau and has warned that the vaccine antibodies have already lost “quite an effectiveness” against the micron and, now, those who take the three doses will be around 50%.

The specialist emphasizes that the vaccines developed to date are of good quality” although the problem is the route of administration and, in this sense, he points out that when they are given by the intranasal route “their infectivity will increase dramatically and that will allow much better control” of a pandemic that “has come to stay because it is transmitted with great ease” .

As he has underlined, the virus will become “seasonal“, is something that “everyone” predicts, and during the next few years we will all have to vaccinate, although it is possible that “at some point” it will become a virus like the other four human coronaviruses that are known and for which there is no need for vaccination.