Virologists and pediatricians, vaccine experts, indicated that this fall the flu and covid vaccination will not be generalized, since both are “complementary” although they have “small differences.”
Thus, on the one hand, they have echoed the recommendation to vaccinate against seasonal flu to “all” children between six months and five years, being the age group that suffers the most from this infection. And, on the other, they have indicated that the coronavirus vaccine will be directed only at “target populations”, those that present risk factors, such as age or previous pathologies.
This was explained this Thursday in Santander by Raúl Ortiz de Lejarazu, scientific adviser and emeritus director of the National Flu Center of Valladolid, in a press conference that he offered together with pediatricians David Moreno, coordinator of the Covid Vaccination Program in Andalusia and vaccine adviser of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, and Ignacio Salamanca, coordinator of the Studies and Research Unit of the Seville Institute of Pediatrics.
The three appeared before the media on the occasion of their participation in the ‘IX Meeting for updating and new approaches in vaccines. Changes in vaccination programs after two years of the covid pandemic, which is taught at the Menéndez Pelayo International University.
The director of the Influenza Center and the UIMP course pointed out that the Spanish Pediatric Society already recommended vaccinating all children last year, and highlighted in this regard that this upcoming campaign is free of charge.
As he remarked, unlike the covid, “the flu kills healthy children, very few”, but depending on the severity of the virus and the condition it causes, each year between nine and fourteen children and adolescents die, without “half “of them have risk factors in addition.
Hence, he recalled, the recommendation made in this regard by the World Health Organization more than a decade ago, since the flu – Salamanca added – “is not a disease of the elderly”, and protecting children becomes the same with the rest of the population.
At this point, he found that while three out of ten minors get infected with the flu, only ten percent of those over 18 do, although the problem is that for many of those over 65 it may be their “last ” infection.
And after remarking that the flu and covid vaccination are “parallel”, but not “the same”, Ortiz has indicated that the doses against the coronavirus are intended for the elderly and vulnerable, as well as health workers, as has been prioritized this year by the WHO itself. The latter represents a “deficit” in a “vaccinating” country like Spain.
The virologist explained that between 75 and 80 percent of the population in rich countries currently has immunity against Covid, due to having had the virus, having received the vaccine or both at the same time, which is why now It is recommended to apply it only to target populations, such as the elderly.
And it is that, as he warned, age is a risk factor, since after the age of 65, mortality among those who are infected increases by 1 or 1.5% every five years, so these people should not have “any doubt” when getting vaccinated.
Asked what vaccine should be administered, Ortiz has recommended that those that are “as advanced as possible” and that “minimize the escape” of the covid, which has not yet stabilized, as it continues to mutate.
In other words, this fall, drugs directed against the strains of the virus that have been isolated should be used, Moreno specified in this regard.
This pediatrician has focused on the recommendation to also vaccinate people with pathologies, including children, “very few cases”, such as those with congenital immunodeficiency or undergoing treatments such as chemotherapy. And it is that the lethality of the virus in healthy children under 5 years of age is “minimal or nil”.
The covid is here to stay for life
As for the pandemic itself, Ortiz stressed that its acute phase has passed, as well as the early post-pandemic phase, so now we are heading towards the post-pandemic phase, because this virus “has come to stay our whole lives.” And it is that eradicating those that affect human beings is “difficult”.
However, his forecast for a decade from now is that it “probably” will be more adapted to our species, as well as vaccines, and the covid will have its “niche of affectation,” he added.
You can also read: Covid-19 continues to be a threat to global health; variant BA.2.86 is monitored: WHO
jcp
2023-08-31 22:00:38
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