Last June 29 The Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Immunizations (Cavei) once again discussed the need for a new reinforcement against Covid-19, since the loss of immunity is a fact: after six months – days more, days less – the protection provided by the vaccine disappears. For this reason, on February 7, the massive campaign began with a fourth dose and to date, 9,800,693 people already have it.
In that monthly meeting, the members of the group that advises the Ministry of Health in the formulation of immunization programs, strategies and policies, again agreed that a fifth dose was necessary, but only for some groups. The recommendation to the Minsal is to administer a third booster, five to six months after the second, in people over 65 years of age, in immunosuppressed people, in people with chronic diseases and in health workers.
“Six months have passed since the vaccination campaign began with the fourth dose and the population at risk was the first to be inoculated with this booster andwe are seeing that these people are beginning to be hospitalized again. So, at this point a new vaccine is necessary. In addition, this must be anticipated because vaccines are not bought from one day to the next, and that is why the recommendation is made in advance”warns María Luz Endeiza, deputy president of the organization and pediatric infectologist at the Universidad de los Andes Clinic.
Esa recommendation had already been made at their meeting on April 27.
In his first meeting after the change of government, the incoming Undersecretary of Public Health, Christopher Square, charged the Committee with the task of evaluating one more booster. After a month and with information in hand, the Cavei reached the same conclusion as now: a third booster dose was needed for vulnerable groups.
One of the reasons given by the advisory committee for not recommending the booster to the general population was the same as now: lack of adherence to the fourth dose campaign. In fact, according to figures from the Department of Statistics and Health Information (DEIS) of the Ministry of Health, there are currently 1,589,545 people who are behind with their third dose and 2,062,705 people with the fourth. In other words, there are more than three million people left behind and with the Mobility Pass blocked.
For this reason, the Cavei also establishes in the minutes that “We must reinforce the message to the population and the deployment of resources and conditions for the completion of primary vaccination schemes and the first and second reinforcement of the entire beneficiary population, seeking that the majority of the target population to be vaccinated can have two reinforcements ”.
Yes indeed, James Rodriguezhead of pediatric infectology at the German Clinic, who assumed the presidency of the Cavei at the end of November, affirms that at the next meeting on July 27 they will re-evaluate the need for one more dose: “Faced with new information provided by the health portfolio on the fourth dose, the authorities asked us to review our recommendation.”
Month after month, the Ministry of Health publishes the minutes of each Cavei meeting. However, the publication of the last document where the third booster dose is again recommended was not without conflict.
According to members of the advisory committee, the minutes were published on the Minsal website for a few days, but then it disappeared. This It worried the members, who approached the authorities to find out what was happening.
Last Friday they communicated with the new head of the Department of Immunizations of the Minsal, Maria Paz Bertoglia, who took office on July 1, after the departure of Dr. Cecilia González. The answer was that the website where the minutes are published was having problems. The members of the Cavei insisted and this time they did get an answer: the minutes were published again this Tuesday.
“The record was uploaded, but it disappeared and we had to request that it be uploaded again. We found out last week, so we made a request, but there was no response, so on Monday they insisted and there they answered and today it is available, “says Endeiza.
“On Thursday we will meet with the authorities, because it calls our attention that it has happened. In addition, what complicates us is that the executive secretary of the Cavei is no longer here, Magdalena Bastías, who was super relevant in the minutes process and her absence creates problems for us to work”, adds Rodríguez.
In fact, the same act establishes that the Cavei “urgently requires that the representation of the Department of Epidemiology materialize permanently.”
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