The allergic reactions of two of the first British vaccinates have raised the doubts of some about the safety of the anti-Covid vaccine. But the immunologist Sergio Abrignani reassures
Two allergic reactions among the first vaccinated in the world against Covid-19. The news from the United Kingdom, the first European country to give the green light to prophylaxis against the coronavirus Sars-CoV-2. And it has rekindled the doubts of some about the safety of vaccines developed in record time, completely unpublished. “I don’t know why two highly allergic 40-year-old health workers were chosen to vaccinate in the first group, so much so that they went around with adrenaline to mitigate any anaphylactic shock. From what we read, these two people had a mild allergic reaction and never risked their lives ”, Professor Sergio Abrignani, immunologist at the University of Milan, explains to Gazzetta Active.
So even those who are allergic will be able to be vaccinated safely against Covid-19? Or are there any risks?
“Allergy sufferers can be vaccinated like any other vaccine. Only highly allergic people – and by this I mean people who have had anaphylactic shock – should be vaccinated in a hospital environment ”.
What are the categories that are best not to undergo the vaccine?
“Immunocompromised, such as cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, because they are known to respond poorly. Pregnant women and children are currently excluded since there are still no clinical studies on these two groups. Obviously, it will take time to study children and pregnant women, but these groups will certainly be vaccinated. It usually takes several years to develop a vaccine precisely because all categories are studied. In this case there was and is a justified haste: we are arriving, in Italy alone, at 70,000 dead. Probably in March, in one year, we will touch the hundred thousand dead. A number that must make us reflect on the enormity of the tragedy we are experiencing: the same number of Italians who died every year during the Second World War ”.
Do Pfizer and Moderna vaccines only protect against disease or also against infection?
“It’s not sure if they even protect against infection. Due to the rush we were in, since it was important first of all to block the disease, it was not possible to find out if the vaccine also blocks the infection ”.
So in theory even those who will undergo the vaccine could get infected and be contagious?
“Theoretically, yes, although most of the vaccines we have to date protect against both disease and infection. The doubt arose because in the development of the AstraZeneca vaccine in a small study on some vaccinated macaques it was observed that the animals did not get sick but they became infected. While Pfizer’s vaccine protected the macaques from both disease and infection ”.
Is the messenger RNA methodology used by Pfizer and Moderna consolidated?
“This is the first time it’s used. This is also why the scientific community has managed to make a vaccine in one year: because RNA vaccines are much much faster to develop and develop from a technological point of view ”.
There is talk of the elderly and health workers among the people who first of all will be subjected to the vaccine also in Italy. Who would you give priority to?
“The first, because they are at risk of death more than anyone else, are the over seventy with multimorbidity or frail, as we call them. In Italy we have four and a half million people like that. The sixty-five thousand deaths we have had in these nine months almost all belong to this group. And in fact we will start vaccinating in RSAs. Right after that I think it’s important to vaccinate healthcare workers and doctors. Personally I would have made the vaccine mandatory in these categories, because a doctor cannot be a vector of infection. And then we will continue with the other groups. Since schools reopen, I would vaccinate teachers and essential workers, who are actually running the country. Lastly, healthy adults. For public health reasons, when, in a few months, we will have the certainty that all vaccines are safe, the anti-Covid vaccination should be mandatory for everyone because I hope we understand the extent of the pandemic we are experiencing. In the history books of this century we will talk about a before and after Covid-19, a health, economic and social stress test without equal in the last 75 years “.
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17 December 2020 – 08:17
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