For infectologist Eduardo López, Moderna vaccine could be applied as a second dose of Sputnik V

Eduardo López, Head of the Clinical Division of the Ricardo Gutiérrez Children’s Hospital, today revealed the possibility that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines, donated by the U.S. government, could be used to inoculate people over the age of 50 who have received AstraZeneca or Sputnik V. That likelihood, he said, would occur because of the delay in the laboratories supplying the two vaccines. Of the 3.5 million Moderna inoculants that have entered the country, some 900,000 will be used primarily to protect adolescents aged 12 to 17 with risk factors.

But “there will be more than enough doses of Moderna and in this sense it is very likely that what has been done in Europe can be approved, (apply) AstraZeneca with the Moderna vaccine or Pfizer and us, Sputnik and a second Moderna dose “ Lopez provided in dialogue with Maria Laura Santillán, in “CNN’s Morning” on CNN Radio.

In addition, the presidential adviser, confided that during “By the second week of August, the study of the combination of vaccines with the first dose of Sputnik and the second of AstraZeneca and the Sinopharm vaccine will be completed and we will have data” on the efficiency in the generation of antibodies against COVID-19.

Given the general concern about the lack of second doses of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, the city of Buenos Aires is moving ahead with the scientific study in which the combination of the first dose of the Russian serum with the AstraZeneca formulations is evaluated , Sinopharm and now Moderna, to achieve safety and efficacy results to complete the millions of pending immunization schedules.

López, one of the Nation’s Health Ministry advisers on issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, admitted the “delay” that exists in the country around the application of second doses and stressed that the strategy of vaccinating most of the population with a first application should already be outdated, to get vaccinated with the complete schedule, due to the appearance of much more contagious SARS-CoV-2 mutations, such as Delta.

In addition, in Argentina, “We made the mistake of not accepting the Pfizer vaccine,” he admitted. in reference to the conflict generated with this laboratory after the approval of the law on vaccines, which blocked negotiations.

In Argentina, “what England had done was privileged, which was to vaccinate a lot with one dose without knowing what happened to the variants, which was the big problem, ”he said with reference to Delta, who changed the strategy. But “accepting that as a delay in vaccination, it is necessary to think of vaccinating the greatest number of the population with two doses”.

“The strategy of giving a dose to many people was useful, but it is not so useful when the high transmissibility variants which elude the immune system have arisen ”, He said, and estimated that as a result of what the advisory committee discussed with the government, “in August” people who have already exceeded the three-month deadline since receiving the first injection of Sputnik V “can be vaccinated with two doses”.

“We’re late with vaccines,” he admitted, but “the good news is August will be counted as COVID vaccination month to try and give everyone two more doses. 50 years old “ as well as adolescents with co-morbidities. In addition, he recalled “we will start to vaccinate adolescents from 12 to 17 years old with the Moderna vaccine”. All this will imply “a qualitative and quantitative leap” in the vaccination plan.

Regarding the debate that is taking place in some countries around the need to apply a third dose, López said that “very much depends on how the Delta strain circulates”. In this sense, he clarified that the decision of the governments of Uruguay and Chile to vaccinate their populations with reinforcement is linked to the fact that the first vaccines “They were less effective than vector vaccines and Modern or Pfizer type vaccines.” In both countries, he said, the “Chinese Coronavac vaccine” has been used.

On the other hand, “in the case of Israel, which has a good dose of Pfaizer and Moderna, with which it will give a third dose to see if it can achieve the famous and sought-after collective immunity”.

Given the general concern about the lack of second doses of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, the city of Buenos Aires is moving ahead with the scientific study in which the combination of the first dose of the Russian serum with the AstraZeneca formulations is evaluated , Sinopharm and now Moderna, to achieve safety and efficacy results to complete the millions of pending immunization schedules.

Vaccine combination studies that started in the past July 7 with the AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines still in the second dose of people already vaccinated with one of the Sputnik V. And that in recent days the Moderna vaccine and Observations of laboratory studies will be carried out at 21 and 28 days after its application to confirm its degree of effectiveness against the disease. This latest development was made possible by the arrival in July of 3.5 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine (messenger RNA platform) in the country.

At the launch of the trial on July 2, the Minister of Health of the City, Fernán Quiros, declared: “We will start this Tuesday with a small group of candidates, between Thursday and Friday we will do all the interventions for people who must vaccinate, and in exactly three weeks we will have the results of the laboratory ”. Once these results are obtained, “in a day or two they are analyzed” and “then we will communicate them to determine the opportunities that we have,” he added.

The combination study in CABA began with the selection of 180 people who had already received a dose of Sputnik V. On 60 of them, component 2 of the Russian serum was applied; 60 others the Sinopharm vaccine and the rest that of AstraZeneca. In this way, not only will the safety levels of the combination be monitored, but it will also be possible to compare whether the immunization percentages (the antibodies) are similar to those which would be obtained if the two doses of Sputnik. V.

Dr López claimed at the time that the study will also be conducted in a second part for people over 65 in around 200 people. “The objective of the vaccine combination study is to generate an effective and safe immune response, the same as using the second component of Sputnik V in people who have already been inoculated with the first dose of the Russian vaccine ”.

“If the Cansino vaccine arrived in our country, it would be interesting to add it to these studies, because it has the same vector component, which is adenovirus 5. I hope to see the results after 28 and 45 days in which concerns the combination with AstraZeneca and Moderna. I don’t have so many expectations with Sinopharm, ”added the expert.

“We will mainly evaluate the side effects on the first or second day, if there is pain, fever or fatigue to analyze if this combination has more important effects; then, we will do a clinical follow-up for two weeks and at 21 days, we will measure the degree of immunity that the vaccines have aroused, ”Quirós had anticipated.

SAccording to the Buenos Aires official, the vaccine crossover “is safe and effective” and can give “even more defenses than the double dose of Pfizer”. “The job is a relatively short job because the degree of immunogenicity is checked at 14 days and 21 days. And the safety is checked, what side effects they had. They are very short texts. Then there are the regulatory and recommendation aspects.

The concern of the health authorities lies in the delay in the arrival from Russia of the second dose of the Sputnik V vaccine and in the availability of those produced by the laboratories of Richmond in Argentina. All this, in the face of the threat posed by the new variants of the coronavirus, notably the Delta, which is up to 50% more contagious than the Alpha variant, already circulating in the community of the country.

“There is no doubt that the Delta variant will arrive in Argentina, but the longer it takes, it gives us time to progress quickly with the vaccination.; if a large percentage of society is already vaccinated with a second dose, the damage it generates will be less, we have experience from England and Israel, ”Quirós said.

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