Covid vaccines, Burioni: “Efficacy? Here’s what we know”

The anti-Covid vaccine “is safe, protects against severe forms and hinders contagion”. Virologist Roberto Burioni, professor at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, writes it in a long post on the Facebook page of ‘MedicFacts’, the portal he founded, addressing the issue of the effectiveness of the shield products available today against the pandemic coronavirus. “No existing vaccine – the virologist immediately clarifies – works 100%. Even the one against measles, which is practically the world champion of vaccines, since where it is used it has made the most contagious virus that exists in the world disappear from the face of the earth. world, sometimes it fails. In the epidemic that hit our country in the years 2016-2017, with less than 10 thousand cases, a few dozen sick people were fully and correctly vaccinated, but this did not prevent the infection. Other vaccines – remembers Burioni – they are even less effective on the individual person. Let’s take the one against mumps: complete vaccination provides protection that is on average around 80%, but field studies have shown a very wide variation in this number. In short, we are far from it. from 100% “.” Speaking of the vaccine against Covid-19 – underlines the doctor – we are faced with a particular difficulty. In fact, the virus that this vaccine must combat is constantly changing and changes continuously, in a way that we do not know (while we know very well for vaccines in use since the 1960s) the protection provided by the different vaccines over time. Unfortunately, we do not have the De Lorean from the film ‘Back to the Future’ that allows us to travel in time, so we have to be content with current data and their uncertainty. “” However, there are certainties we have today about the Covid vaccine. First of all – explains Burioni – it is a very safe vaccine (billions of doses have been administered with very rare serious adverse reactions), secondly at the moment it is very effective in preventing the most serious form of the disease. We also know that its effectiveness has decreased since the Delta variant appeared, but – specifies the teacher – it is not known at the moment whether this depends on the fact that the variant can escape the vaccine or (more likely) on the fact that this variant it is immensely more contagious than the previous one, causing the virus to reach concentrations thousands of times higher in the patient’s mouth and nose. In short – exemplifies Burioni – a bulletproof vest is effective, but it is one thing to shoot with a small gun, it is another thing to shoot with a large-caliber one. However, you can save your life, but in the second case you can break a rib. “” The very important issue we are talking about is the ability of this vaccine to prevent contagion. This data – warns the virologist – is much more difficult to measure, because being infected and asymptomatic contagiators, it is necessary to carry out very complicated checks to implement. We can discuss how much this vaccine may be able to reduce the infection, but there is no doubt – says the scientist – that vaccination is able to hinder the infection in a notable way, even if (see above) not 100% “.” In other words – highlights the scientist – it is certain that in a vaccinated community the virus circulates much less, because the vaccinated are less infectious and become infected less “. And” do not be misled by the number of infections in vaccinated people “. Burioni warns: “Remember that in 1960 no person who died in road accidents wore a seat belt, while those who die in 2021 always wear a seat belt. This does not mean that the seat belt is useless, it just means that everyone wears it and that it obviously does not protect 100% “.” The real problem, at the moment – continues the virologist – is therefore not so much linked to the vaccine (sure , hinders the contagion and protects very effectively against severe forms), as to the fact that still many, too many people have not been vaccinated. If we look at Israel, which was the first to leave, the percentage of vaccinated people stopped just below 60%, in Italy we are around 54%. As you can see, there are still a lot of people who can be infected and who allow the virus to circulate. Therefore it is right to ask the question of the effectiveness of the vaccine (in the case of polio the first vaccine was not the most effective; the second – Sabin – is the one that made the disease disappear), of the duration of protection and the need for a third dose. But at the moment – Burioni insists – the most relevant problem in our country is vaccinating all the people who can be vaccinated, in order to reduce as much as possible both the circulation of the virus and the impact of the virus on the health of individuals. and on public health “.” The mumps vaccine – the expert adds as an example – as I told you, has an effectiveness that in the various studies has gone from 55% to 90% in the most recent and accurate observations. Despite its ‘ineffectiveness’, the cases of mumps in the US have gone from nearly 200,000 per year to less than 400, and annual deaths from several dozen to zero. But this only happened where everyone got vaccinated, not where only 60% of the population got vaccinated “.” In short – concludes the virologist – while we wonder how effective the vaccine against Covid is and how long the protection will last (questions to which we will only have answers in the future), what is important in the present is to make good use of the things we know with reasonable certainty. The vaccine is safe, protects against severe forms and prevents contagion. Vaccination – concludes Burioni – is not just a gesture of individual protection, but makes our entire community safer and is useful to others. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, do it for your and our children who have already paid so dearly in the last 2 years for this very serious health catastrophe “.