Rome, April 15, 2021 – Il anti Covid vaccination plan proceeds in Italy despite stomach ache caused by vaccines AstraZeneca e Johnson & Johnson. The extraordinary commissioner for the Covid-19 emergency, general Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, continues his tour of the Regions (today in Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta) and says he is optimistic. The new goal is to vaccinate all over 60s by June at least with one dose, explains the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza, who reiterates: “Only by vaccinating tens of millions of Italians will we regain our freedoms and a lasting economic recovery will be possible”.
At the moment we have over 14 million administrations and more than 4 million Italians immunized even with the recall (here the government dashboard in real time).
Vaccine focus: AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson
Herd immunity for over 80 and frail
One of the new parameters that could enter the new decree to determine the risk level of the regions (and consequently, the reopenings) could be the percentage of vaccine administration: the Regions and the Higher Institute of Health are working on a hypothesis that provides for a coverage rate of 70% for over 80 and frail, therefore herd immunity for this age group.
Covid, the bulletin of today 15 April
Vaccines: the incoming doses
The government says it is convinced that the vaccination campaign will not suffer further slowdowns, even strong 7 million more doses for Italy that Pfizer it will bring forward from the fourth to the second quarter, therefore by June, as announced by the president of the EU Commission Ursula Von der Leyen. “We will deliver 250 million doses to Europe this quarter,” says Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla al Corsera, also revealing a study on 46 thousand people according to which at the moment Pfizer’s serum “is also safe on variants”.
Son: the car is fine
“The organization is there, the machine has been fine-tuned and with the doses arriving I am sure that we will bring home the objectives and we will be able to reopen the country”, says Figliuolo. After a couple of days, the injections are go back above 300 thousand in 24 hours and the input given by the general is that we continue to travel constantly at these rates, given that the goal of 500 thousand vaccinations a day in mid-April has already jumped.
The other non-derogable indication is that concerning the categories: first the over 80 and the frail are vaccinated, then the seventy and 60 year olds.
Hope and the motion of no confidence
“Our goal is to administer the first dose within the quarter to the target over 60, where 95% of deaths are concentrated,” says Speranza in his briefing at Ca, era. and explains the rationale: “Vaccinate the elderly it is correct because it saves lives. And all the regions must comply with these indications. “But the Minister of Health must collect the announcement of the motion of no confidence by the Brothers of Italy, with Giorgia Meloni attacking: “We have been denouncing her incompetence and inadequacy for months”.
Gimbe and the battle of numbers
To date, according to the minister’s data, the first dose to 76% of people over 80 years old and 30% of those between 70 and 80. Numbers that for the Gimbe however, they mean the opposite: the campaign is struggling, given that one in four eighty-year-olds hasn’t even had a dose and between 70 and 79 this percentage rises to 3 out of four.
Vaccinations in the pharmacy
What is certain is that if we want to link, as Prime Minister Mario Draghi said, the openings to vaccinations, we must accelerate. On this front, help will come from pharmacies: there are already 11 thousand that will become places of administration, with 25 thousand pharmacists who have already started the training course. But more doses are needed and here Johnson & Johnson is back in action. “The safety of the people using our products is our top priority,” says company executive vice president Paul Stoffels with the company convinced of the “benefit-risk profile of our vaccine.”
Aifa: the vaccines-deaths report
As of March 26, 2021, a total of 100 reports of ‘death following vaccination from Covid-19’ have been included in the National Pharmacovigilance Network, for a reporting rate of 1.1 cases per 100 thousand doses of vaccine administered. The data is contained in the Aifa III Pharmacovigilance Report on Covid-19 vaccines.
The causal link with vaccination has so far been demonstrated only in one case. The reported fatal cases, highlighted in the report, are 76 for the Pfizer-Comirnaty vaccine (rate per 100 thousand doses 1.1), 12 for the Moderna vaccine (rate 2.8), 12 for the AstraZeneca vaccine (rate 0.7 ).
The indication for the J&J vaccine
According to Figliuolo the question will be resolved shortly but in any case it is likely that, as happened for Astrazeneca, its use with limitations will be recommended. The Undersecretary of Health Pierpaolo Sileri defines an age limit as “likely” as for the serum of the Anglo-Swedish company, therefore over 60 years. It is an “important” vaccine for the campaign, repeats Speranza, like Astrazeneca, which is “safe, effective”.
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