AstraZeneca and young people, Aifa: “Responsibility lies with the ministry”

The opinion on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and the related communication, is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health. This was stated by the president of the Italian drug agency (Aifa), Giorgio Palù, in the debate on the vaccine that has returned to the fore after rare cases of thrombosis following the administration of a dose. Currently, AstraZeneca is recommended for people over 60. Those who have had the first dose without problems are also expected to receive the second. Read also “We are discussing in these hours, the AIFA gave its opinion, yesterday we met with the CTS, but I believe that now the responsibility – both for the opinion and for the communication – lies with the Ministry of Health. a rule of conduct and I can anticipate that on this it will be the full minister who will say what the decision will be “, said Palù, speaking at the online Pharma Talk of the RCS Academy Business School, commenting on the pronouncements, expected shortly, on the opportunity to recommend the AstraZeneca anti-Covid vaccine only after a certain age threshold. “Communication is important – Palù stressed – especially for a disease that is new. The science that has provided us with very effective vaccines in the space of 9 months, the validative studies have taken so little time done on tens of thousands of people but – he stressed – what is teaching us is the field that is the mass vaccination of the population. We are also learning, science is adapting – he clarified – and it is not science that which cannot be falsified as Popper said and therefore we have to adjust our knowledge on the basis of what the evidence is. Today – added Palù – we are in a phase of low prevalence of the infection so we must commensurate the risks and benefits to this phase “. But “I think it is important – the AIFA summit reiterated – that communication be left to a few people who have scientific expertise and who know how to tell the society that listens and which is often confused, and to give minor advice in a situation that it is in dynamic development. I would stop here because I believe that the floor will pass today to the minister “.