The covid is still there, although it is not too present in our lives due to its lesser severity. The pandemic, at least in Europe, seems to be controlled thanks, basically, to vaccines. Even if everything is unpredictable, because the virus continues to circulate. But vaccinology experts, gathered this week at the VI Vaccination Conference of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology (SEE), are clear: vaccination campaigns will continue and are very likely to remain forever, like the flu. Because it is expected (with uncertainty as a dogma) that it will become a seasonal virus in the coming years.
What is the future then? “In future campaigns, it is likely that we will have vaccines to protect against both viruses in a single dose and even against SARS-CoV-2 and pneumococcus,” although it will take some time as their efficacy and safety have yet to be demonstrated in humans. This is indicated by the document of the Scientific Committee of the College of Doctors of Madrid, which for the moment supports the simultaneous vaccination of the population vulnerable to influenza and covid as is currently being done.
Covid virus will likely be seasonal in the next few years, as are respiratory viruses
Despite this, they consider it prudent to separate vaccines in those people who have had significant adverse effects from any of them. It is also not recommended to combine them in young people, especially men under 40 years of age, in whom adverse effects may be more frequent and the risk of both diseases is low, the aforementioned document states.
In the SEE vaccination conference, Agustín Portela, head of the Biological Products, Advanced Therapies and Biotechnology Division of the Spanish Medicines Agency, indicated that the current vaccines are effective and safe for the new omicron variants and gave for the fact that in this month, or at the latest in December, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will give its approval to the new drugs from Sanofi and the Spanish Hipra, again as a booster dose. “So we will have six vaccines to deal with this winter,” he says. Meanwhile, companies continue to research new drugs and vaccine combinations for the future.
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In this sense, experts from the Madrid College of Physicians take it for granted that although regulatory agencies currently require vaccine safety studies against new variants of SARS-CoV-2, and although they have an accelerated evaluation process, it is It is possible that “in the future, and given the need to create new vaccines against emerging variants, this procedure will relax and follow a model similar to that of influenza vaccines.”
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recognizes that there is pandemic fatigue and that this affects the fourth dose of vaccination, despite the benefits it brings to vulnerable people. This fatigue is also recognized by Aurora Limia, head of the Vaccination Programs area of the Ministry of Health and member of the Vaccines Committee which prepares the vaccination strategy in Spain. Fed up is a factor that the presentation contemplates and that they know they have to fight. “But to be positive it is also advisable to get vaccinated against the flu and not everyone does it,” says Limia.
Pandemic fatigue affects fourth dose vaccination despite its benefits
This fatigue is also noticeable in the most vulnerable people, the over 80s. A month after starting the campaign to receive the fourth dose (the second booster), more than half have not yet received it. That figure doesn’t reach 25% among people between the ages of 60 and 79, although vaccination has only just begun. In countries like France and Germany, which have started vaccinating earlier, the rates are even lower.
The head of the Vaccination Programs area of the Ministry of Health has ruled out, at least for the moment, to vaccinate the vulnerable population every three months, as some countries are studying. According to him, the important thing is to continue to monitor the virus, detect any important mutations and observe its evolution this winter.
