Delta plus variant, Pregliasco: “A little hole in vaccines like the Delta”

The so-called Delta plus variant, the AY.4.2 of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus, “a little hole in the vaccines” anti-Covid, “but not too much”. Virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco, a professor at the State University of Milan, says this to Adnkronos Salute. “There is no such huge loss of protection,” he points out. “We have seen a decrease in efficiency – the expert recalls – even with the Delta variant and to date there is not a very big difference” with the Delta plus. Vaccines, however, “protect and even England where there is a large part” of the infections caused by Delta plus proves it. While with us this variant “there is, but it is not showing up too much”. As for the alarm following a study published in ‘Future Virology’, according to which in almost one case out of two Covid-19 tests would give false negatives, Pregliasco explains that “swabs have a false negative rate of 30% and this we knew. They take us, but with a certain limitation. However, 50% seems to me a bit pessimistic as an estimate “. “Let’s say that the swab works well in symptomatic and diagnostic doubt – explains the expert – while it works less well in detecting the virus in asymptomatic patients. Now we are making swabs à gogo in the less favorable situation for the antigenic swab which – he reiterates – goes good when there are symptoms and therefore this can raise the share of false negatives. Then there is also a problem with the quality of the sample. We have a colleague who swabs nicknamed ‘Black & Decker’: it’s cruel – smiles Pregliasco – but very good”.