Covid, Lopalco: ‘I’m afraid we will arrive unprepared for autumn, start immediately’

“Do we have a plan for the fall? We are already at the end of May and we have a summer in which most of us will be busy trying to complete the Covid vaccination campaign. I am afraid that we will arrive in the autumn unprepared” for the necessary organization. to continue the administration of the anti Covid vaccines, “which will probably have to continue”, and which will overlap with the flu one. This was stated by Pierluigi Lopalco, epidemiologist and health councilor of Puglia, during the webinar ‘Immunization strategies of the adult-elderly: what can we learn from the Covid-19 experience?’, Organized HappyAgeing-Italian Alliance for active aging and made with the non-conditioning contribution of Gsk, Msd, Pfizer and Seqirus. “I envision – explained Lopalco – the need to make recalls and vaccinate children, with an overload that will remain important for the whole system, just when the flu shot will have to be started. So let’s start organizing ourselves, above all to make sure to arrive in winter with the possibility of co-administering vaccines: doing anti-Covid in one arm and anti-flu in the other. We do not wait for the last moment to authorize it. We push the regulatory authorities and give this ok, because it doesn’t take much to give it. Just a small co-administration study that doesn’t cost much. And if companies don’t, regulators can take responsibility for writing two lines of authorization to co-administer, until proven contrary, as we have always done “. In short, “we need to arrive prepared for autumn. We need to know whether to dismantle the system set up for the anti-Covid campaign. We need to know if we should use this firepower to complement Covid vaccination with other adult and adolescent vaccinations. . I hope that we, as regions, can meet to take initiatives and propose coordination to the ministry to make, after the greatest vaccination campaign in history, the most beautiful campaign in history “, he concluded.