Between 80 and 90% of COVID deaths today are associated with lack of vaccination (Getty)
He COVID-19 no longer has the firepower that threatened humanity in 2020 and 2021, however, experts agree that it is still a respiratory infection that can cause serious illness and hospitalizationespecially in older adults and patients with risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, or other comorbidities.
Vaccinating a large part of the world’s population changed the course of the pandemic And currently, our bodies are better prepared to combat the viruseither through vaccinations or previous infections. This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDAfor its acronym in English) authorized the updated vaccines aimed at combating the most recent strain of the COVID-19The new injection is intended to further enhance existing defenses.
This endorsement from the highest regulatory authority in the US comes just before the start of the boreal autumn-winterthat is, the peak season for respiratory diseases. The vaccines, developed by Modern y Pfizer y BioNTechfocus on the coronavirus variant Omicron KP.2.
American doctors and public health officials stress the importance of all persons six months of age and older should receive the vaccine. However, they give special advice to older people who have not been vaccinated recently.
“The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have been updated with this formulation to more closely target the variants currently circulating,” the FDA said.
In the United States, the updated coronavirus vaccine is recommended for All persons over six months of age. The American health authorities opted for a universal recommendation rather than trying to define who is at high risksince most Americans have at least one comorbidity factor, such as being overweight or diabetes.
In that same sense, the World Health Organization (WHO)recommends that all people who have had or have not had COVID-19 apply the recommended doses against the disease, regardless of whether they have had symptoms, this is because “The vaccine further strengthens the immune system of the body against COVID-19.”
While in the rest of the countries the vaccines have not yet been updated against the most recent strain, The available doses also protect against infection by SARS-CoV-2 and experts recommend applying them.
“I’ve seen a lot of people in the hospital who got multiple vaccines early in the pandemic and then none for a year or two,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco, told Reuters Health. The Wall Street Journal.
Despite recommendations for the entire population over 6 months of age to apply COVID-19 vaccines, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that until May, Only 22.5% of adults and 14.4% of children had received the most recent doses.
Experts agree that COVID is still a respiratory infection that can cause severe symptoms and hospitalization (Illustrative Image Infobae)
The CDC now recommends that people get vaccinated with one of the new doses by the end of October, available at local clinics and pharmacies. For those who have been vaccinated or recently recovered from COVID-19, doctors suggest waiting about three months before getting the new dose.
Meanwhile, Immunocompromised people can receive additional doses throughout the yearalthough the CDC is still evaluating whether to expand this recommendation to people over 65 years of age.
In addition, the Flu vaccines can be administered alongside COVID-19 vaccines. For people over 75 years of age who have not received the vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)it is recommended to include it in your immunization list for this season.
The latest vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer will now target a variant of the Omicron strain of the virus called KP.2, the FDA said in a statement. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
The agency recommends updated vaccines Modern y Pfizer to:
- Unvaccinated young children (6 months to 4 years). They should receive three doses of the updated Pfizer vaccine or two doses of the updated Moderna vaccine.
- Previously vaccinated young children (6 months to 4 years). They should receive one or two doses of either vaccine, depending on the previous vaccine they received.
- Children from 5 to 11 years old. Regardless of prior vaccination status, they must receive a single dose of the updated Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.
If you have been previously vaccinated, the new dose should be administered at least two months after the last injection. - People aged 12 years or older. They should receive a single dose of the updated Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. If they have been previously vaccinated, the new dose should be administered at least two months after the last injection.
COVID-19 is still present and causes more deaths than influenza; WHO warns of increasing cases worldwide. (Getty)
COVID is less dangerous than at the beginning of the pandemic because our bodies have become accustomed to fighting the virus and almost everyone has some degree of immunity from receiving vaccines or getting sick. According to Dr. Robert Hopkinsmedical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases In the United States, updated vaccines are “an opportunity to mitigate or reduce that risk even further rather than just relying on what happened in the past,” he told The Washington Post.
David J. Tophamdirector of the Institute for Translational Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Rochester, said: “People who get vaccinated are less likely to get infected. We would love for vaccines to be perfect, but Mother Nature is pretty smart.”
“Unfortunately, COVID has continued to circulate throughout the year“, said the doctora Kelly Moorepresident of Immunize.orga Minnesota-based nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of protecting against vaccine-preventable diseases, in dialogue with The Wall Street Journal.
Most insurance plans in USA will cover COVID-19 vaccines at no additional cost to patients. Uninsured children can access them for free through the federal program Vaccines for ChildrenHowever, it could be harder for uninsured adults to find free vaccines this year, as the federal program that provided them will stop at the end of August, he said. The Wall Street Journal.
The same newspaper published that the company Novavax is also preparing a vaccine for the fall targeting the JN.1 strain that is still pending FDA approval.
