Third dose, Palù: “Immediately to the over 60s, they are those who risk the most”

“It is right to consider the administration of the third booster dose, called ‘booster’, also for the population groups currently not indicated as priority for age”. Giorgio Palù, virologist of the technical-scientific committee and chairman of the board of directors of the Aifa drug agency, says this in an interview with Corriere della Sera. “After the immunosuppressed, for which a third additional dose is scheduled one month after the second, guests of the RSA, over 80 and health workers, we have identified the over 60 as people who should receive the booster – he explains – at least six months. after having received the first two doses, also in association with the seasonal anti-flu vaccine. This allows to strengthen the anti-Sars-CoV-2 immune response which, as we have seen, tends to decrease over time after the primary cycle “. Will the reinforcement dose be indicated even under the age of 60? “I think that as the vaccination campaign goes on, it will be appropriate to indicate the recall to the over 50s, then to the over 40s and so on up to the twenties. But this will take place on the basis of choices that will be implemented in the light of the results of published studies and For the moment – highlights Palù – attention has been focused on those over sixty because between the ages of 60 and 70 the risk of a fatal event if you contract Covid is 1.8-2% and rises up to 18-20% in the following decades especially in the presence of comorbidities such as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity “. In Great Britain the infections in the last period have exceeded 50 thousand cases per day, never so many since mid-July. On Thursday the dead were 115, yesterday 180. Is this a signal that Italy should worry about? “It is wrong to compare the situation in Great Britain to ours. In Italy, in addition to having vaccinated more than 82% of the population over the age of 12, we have never abandoned individual protection measures, masks, which have remained mandatory in closed places and outdoors in case of gatherings. Greater vaccination coverage, not having postponed the second dose, respect for the spacing and the adoption of the green pass, then made the difference “, he underlines. Are you worried about the Delta variant which has two new mutations, first cases in Great Britain? “No, don’t worry. It is a sub variant of the Delta, it has two mutations, one of which is already known. In Great Britain it has not become predominant. It seems to be 10% more contagious, but there are no studies to support this hypothesis. It has been. isolated also in Italy. For now we are calm and the control centers do not consider it the subject of further concern and investigations “, he concludes.