With up to four doses of vaccine against covid, only the last one with modification of its composition, a large part of the population has been covered. Especially those over 60 have opted for the second reinforcement; although the demand has been very contained this last time after so much puncture.
Now, after the work of the Valladolid team and other investigations around the world, including some including the fourth dose, with similar results, the when and how much comes into the picture for the not so distant future, predictably again next fall. .
An annual dose? Every six months? Even in the same shot as the flu?
In this regard, the professor of Microbiology at the University of Valladolid and head of this specialty at Río Hortega, Dr. José María Eiros Bouza, points out that “maintained prevention strategies must be designed” and that “we will probably go towards a multi-year vaccination model ; but it is not yet known, it is necessary to analyze all the studies well and assess it. We must not neglect that profound changes in the composition of the virus genome that condition its structure and functionality will cause current vaccines and acquired immunity to lose effectiveness, which is why it is necessary to minimize virus replication, making new infections difficult, maintaining virological surveillance of cases through massive sequencing, communicating the findings and maximizing the development of effective antiviral treatments.
The head of the National Flu Center, biologist Iván Sanz, points in the same direction. “You have to migrate to a system similar to that of the flu; but the variability of the flu vaccines from one season to another would be less than with the covid, which varies a lot. But it will be similar although the frequency remains to be determined.
And the long-term future could even bring a single flat tire for both of them. “It would not be the first time, there are already many childhood vaccines like this; but it remains to be seen, a lot of research is needed,” says Sanz.
