What will happen to those vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson single-dose?
No new supplies of Johnson & Johnson single-dose are expected, the effectiveness of which seems to decrease significantly already after two months from the injection, and so here are the hypotheses for the recall
Only the green light from the European Medicines Authority (EMA) is awaited, but it is very likely that those who have been immunized with the Johnson & Johnson single-dose could receive a booster with an mRna vaccine between Pfizer and Moderna.
DATA ON J&J IN ITALY
According to data published by the government , almost one and a half million Italians have been vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson – and therefore could be given a booster with Pfizer or Moderna – "since Johnson's serum has now been abandoned in our Country ”, writes Repubblica . In fact, no other supplies of J&J doses are expected.
It was mainly women who chose the Janssen vaccine: two out of three, exactly 1,008,285 women and 480,300 men. Even among those who got the vaccine after contracting Covid, many more women preferred the single dose.
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE UNITED STATES
From the words (and from the controversies that followed), for the intervention on the TV program L'aria che tira , by Professor Walter Ricciardi, consultant to the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza, we have returned to talk about heterologous vaccination.
In the United States, in fact, the Food and Drug Administration (Fda) has already approved the booster with Pfizer or Moderna even for those who were initially vaccinated with J&J and, indeed, according to a study by the National Institutes of Health it would even seem recommended the mix and match of vaccines – in particular, one per mRna after the single dose – to obtain a better immune response.
FORECASTS
According to Ricciardi, it is likely that the authorization to proceed from the EMA will arrive soon: "I expect it will happen in a short time – he commented – usually the European body quickly follows the FDA's ruling, given that they analyze the same data".
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF J&J
As stated by Ricciardi , recent studies have found that with the J&J vaccine, being single-dose, "already after two months the effectiveness of the protection decreases significantly, especially with the Delta variant". Reason why, again in the words of the councilor, the approval of the FDA provides for the recall for those immunized with Pfizer and Moderna after at least six months from the second administration, while for J&J it could take place just two months after the injection. Furthermore, the decision will also involve the under-60 population.
"As happens for those who have made the other vaccines", explained Ricciardi, "also in this case priority will be given to the over 60s, but gradually all the others will have to do the booster dose".
CONFIRMATION OF LOCATELLI
Ricciardi's words were followed by the confirmation of the coordinator of the Technical Scientific Committee (Cts) Franco Locatelli: “The J&J vaccine has obtained the approval of single-dose administration; in these hours there is news of a review by the FDA and perhaps it will also arrive from Ema, for the administration of a second dose with an mRna vaccine. Even administering it for more than 2 months does not invalidate the efficacy ".
THE RECALL
The audience that can be vaccinated with the third dose, reads the latest Gimbe report , is still not updated in the Open Data on Covid vaccines with respect to the extension of the Circular of the Ministry of Health of 8 October 2021, which therefore remains at 7 , 6 million people according to the categories set out in the previous circular.
Fragile individuals and over 60s are currently the interested parties in Italy and for booking it is necessary to follow the rules of the health portals of each Region.
THE VACCINATION CAMPAIGN IN ITALY
In Italy, as stated on the government website , as of 25 October, 86.03% of the population over 12 received at least one dose of vaccine and 82.17% completed the vaccination cycle.
As for the boosters, however, 27.42% of the population concerned has already received it and has completed the vaccination cycle for at least six months.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF VACCINES
Always looking at the data published by the government, of the 99,778,753 total vaccines distributed in Italy, 71,158,535 are Pfizer / BioNTech, 15,231,808 Moderna, 11,543,524 AstraZeneca and 1,844,886 J&J.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/che-cosa-succedera-ai-vaccinati-con-il-monodose-johnson-johnson/ on Mon, 25 Oct 2021 09:23:09 +0000.