Covid, Crisanti: “We need a vaccine with a longer duration, a call is waiting for us in the autumn”

“Revaccinate everyone against Covid, even with these vaccines”. If in autumn we were faced with a resurgence of the virus “there is no alternative” for the virologist Andrea Crisanti. The hope of having new versions of vaccines that also protect against infection “is there”, he explains in an interview with ‘Fatto Quotidiano’. “There are dozens of vaccines in development,” he recalls. “But it must be clear: we will not get out of this situation without a vaccine with a longer duration than we have”, explains the expert according to which “the real problem” is precisely “the short duration of the vaccine over time, not the side effects, which multiply when you have to give a vaccine three, four, five times “. In any case, if it is to be revaccinated, for the director of the Department of Molecular Medicine of the University of Padua it would make sense to do so “from the age of 18”, because “transmission must also be limited”. Looking at what is happening in other countries, in particular Portugal struggling with the advancement of the Omicron Ba.5 variant, Crisanti emphasizes that “it is too early to say if the problem is real starting from small fluctuations. Surely there is. it is a wave but it can run out in a few weeks. We have always said that the risk is that of a more dangerous variant selected under the pressure of vaccines. We do not know if this is Ba.5 “. For the expert “the problem is always the same: the most fragile people are not adequately protected”. And Ba.5 “like the other Omicron infects the vaccinated, so if it infects an elderly person or with more pathologies, even if vaccinated, the disease is likely to be serious”. One element to consider is “the type of vaccines we” have at the moment and which “do not protect against infection and last too short. Portugal also has the problem of having everyone vaccinated early, so protection was reduced earlier. the next country that could have difficulties, for the same reason, is Ireland “, he speculates. Revaccinating is therefore the way. Even if the protection were to be reduced in a short time. “If it lasts four months we will be out of winter. The observation point will be as in the past Israel, we will see what will happen there. Today the virus is circulating a lot, in my opinion in Italy we are about 200 thousand infections a day and this increases the number of people protected in view of autumn “.