Lazio, vaccines: a thousand pharmacies ready with Moderna, slowdown among 16-year-olds: canceled appointments

«Doctor excuse me, I can cancel the appointment of the vaccine and reschedule it in August? ». Thus the teenager on duty with his family doctor breaks in. Summer: desire to go to the beach, on vacation other than anticovid vaccination, we ask for a “postponement”.

It goes like this in many family doctors’ surgeries Lazio who in these days are receiving cancellations from several adolescents, aged 16 and over, who have made an appointment but who are then forced to recall tend to postpone the first dose until after August 15th. “On average, two children a day, or 20% of the vaccinations scheduled in one day, who had also made an appointment – explains Alberto Chiriatti, regional deputy secretary of Fimmg, the Italian Federation of General Practitioners – call us and say if they can reschedule it. later on, in late August ».

A trend that seems to be spreading in that group of young people who did not return precisely for their age in the “junior open days” of the Region and who ended up leading to vaccinating approximately 80,000 children. These cancellations will affect the period preceding the return to class where the first missed doses will now be added to the more than 100,000 Pfizer reminders and Modern. In addition, there is a problem with the use of vials: «At ASL Roma 3 – concludes Chiriatti – the Pharmacy has begun to give us doctors Pfizer single-doses instead of vials and this allows us not to waste anything even in the face of cancellations “, but for those surgeries where the” bottles “system is still in force, there is a risk of dispersing doses useful for teenagers who retreat at the last minute: open a bottle or consume it in its entirety or what remains is thrown away.

THE ALTERNATIVE
Meanwhile, yesterday the Region met with pharmacists to manage the vaccination campaign after the indication not to administer Jonhson & Jonhson to under 60s. From the regional crisis unit they asked for the availability of administering the Moderna vaccine and the thousand pharmacies participating in the campaign said they were available. Also because if there are no more young people who want to do the J&J, their commitment would be nullified: they would no longer have anyone to vaccinate considering the fact that the over 60s in Lazio are almost all immunized.

When do we leave? There is still no certain date, much will in fact depend on the availability of Moderna vaccines even if it is reasonable to assume a change of pace starting from mid-July. The Region’s goal remains to achieve herd immunity on 8 August and to have “zero infections” throughout the territory by the end of July. Already the province of Rieti for over a week has not registered any new cases while yesterday’s positives, albeit with a slight increase, remain below 100. The departments, including intensive care, which count throughout Lazio, continue to deflate 76 hospitalized patients. Undoubtedly, the decline in infections is attributable to the vaccination campaign which yesterday reached the milestone of 4.7 million doses administered.