THEThe Covid vaccine was once again the subject of the appeal of Roberto Burioni, Full Professor of Microbiology and Virology, PhD in Microbiological Sciences and Specialist in Clinical Immunology and Allergologyat Che Tempo Che Fa. According to data from the Istituto Superiore della Sanità, in fact, too many third doses are still missing to ensure better coverage from the virus for everyone. But not only. The third dose is needed to make sure you are more likely to have minor symptoms if you have an infection.
Without vaccine still 7 million Italians
“We have been among the best in the world in vaccination, we must be very proud of this. But it can be seen from another angle because, even if we have been very good, at the moment they are there 7 million Italians who have not even taken a dose. Now if we are not in the midst of a catastrophe we owe it only to this one formidable feat that made science: produce a vaccine in record timemake it available ”, explains Professor Burioni, guest of Fabio Fazio a What’s the weather like on Rai3.
Two doses are not enough: that’s why
“This vaccine is made up of three doses, above 12 years it takes three doseslet’s say it once and for all, because like many vaccines, the one for Hepatitis C, Papilloma, two doses are not enough. People who have not taken the first dose may encounter very serious consequences with a virus circulating. The war has troubled us all, but from the moment the war began to today in Italy more than 5,000 people have died of Covid “, warns the expert.
The end of the emergency is not the end of the pandemic: “Get vaccinated to return to normal life”
«Of course we have to reopen and live with this virus, but this one it does not mean living as if this vaccine did not exist and the vaccine is the linchpin of this return to normal life. What do we do with these 7 million people who have not been vaccinated? Unfortunately, perhaps involuntarily, the message has passed that it is all over because people are no longer vaccinated, this is a fact », explained virologist Roberto Burioni.
Vaccine in decline: “A serious mistake”
There are still too many people who have not started or completed the vaccination course, and this implies a prolongation of the pandemic. “The new vaccinations are dropping all the time. They have passed by 60,000 a week a month ago to just over 18,000. What has surely passed is that there is no longer any need to vaccinate, it is not like that and it would be important to explain it to these people, first of all because they are at their own risk and then involuntarily also contribute to the circulation of the virus. Those who are infected can have the vaccination after 120 days and we recommend it because it is essential to get the vaccine even after an infection “.
“To keep children safe, we need to vaccinate them”
Meanwhile, children in schools, especially younger ones under 12, continue to get sick with Covid and infect grandparents and frail people. «There is Caporetto, it is a catastrophe. There pediatric vaccination went awfulis going down and the average is 33% with two doses, but in some regions we are at very low percentages. To keep children safe, we need to vaccinate themit is very important to try to convince these parents too, who are so many », remembers Burioni.
Vaccine over 50 years: still 1 million unvaccinated
«Here we come to an incomprehensible thing, because we have in Italy about 1 million over-fifties who have not been vaccinatedthey did not not even a dose. Of this million in the last week, 4,000 have been vaccinated. I think that maybe you have to try to convince them a little, to communicate effectively. Even the third doses have dropped, there is a bit of a feeling that the mechanism that Julius Caesar described in De Bello Gallico has been triggered, namely that men willingly believe in what they want, we all want the pandemic to be over but it is not and therefore we must get vaccinated ».
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Antiviral drugs should be used more
«We have been given more than 11,000 doses and that just over 2,000 have been used is in my opinion something that is not good. Let’s look at the other countries: in the United States, in New York, those who are positive dial a phone number, even if they do not have a doctor, and the antiviral drug they bring home, if he is a person at risk. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of an elderly and positive person, ask them to go to the pharmacy, to the specialist and then back to the pharmacy? Here the process is complicated and not good, we need to improve it, Why using these drugs late is another shortcoming, they have an effectiveness around 90% in avoiding serious consequences, we cannot afford to waste such a valuable weapon. We need to be faster, put patients and doctors in a position to use it », concludes Burioni.
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