What is the risk of not completing the vaccination schedule, experts say

Following statements by former Secretary and Minister of Health Adolfo Rubinstein, who advised to complete the vaccination schedule of those who received the first doses, as part of the VIP vaccination scandal, Infobae contacted two specialists to know the risks of partial immunity.

Does Sputnik V, the vaccine developed by the Gamaleya center of Russia, which was received at the Ministry of Health by those who make up the controversial list, have two components: it uses human adenovirus technology from two different vectors , Ad5 and Ad26, for a first and a second injection. For what Both applications are necessary and complementary to obtain complete immunity.

“If you give yourself a single dose, the protection will be less, that is, it will not cover you completely; you can get sick anyway. If you don’t give yourself all three doses of sabin, you won’t be covered with sabin, ”said pediatrician Carlos Kambourian, former president of Garrahan Hospital, and warned of what he said is a problem. even greater risk: “You have to think about public health. Those who have been vaccinated irregularly are Argentinian citizens and for a public health problem they must receive the second dose, but in turn, going to the hospital and standing in line. This second dose must be applied because otherwise we will have lost the doses applied to these people ”.

According to Kambourian, the application of the second vaccine may take a while and “it is not important”. Does, according to the specialist, The most important thing in terms of vaccination is to respect the number of doses indicated and not so much with the supply interval between one and the other. The epidemiologist Hugo Pizzi agrees on this last point: “If instead of placing the second dose, for example, at 30 days, I put it at 60, the effectiveness of the immunization of people would not be lost. , in the case of inoculants which have an efficiency of 70%, 75%, 80%; even the collection of the second dose may be delayed ”.

The first dose prepares the immune system. This allows the immune system to prepare for its defense. The second dose, or boost, gives the immune system a chance to increase the quality and quantity of antibodies used to fight the virus.

In the case of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, for example, the second dose is known to increase the protection provided by the vaccine from 60% to about 95%.

Pediatric infectologist and professor of vaccination at USAL Eduardo Lopez points out that there are no studies with no vaccine to find out how long immunity lasts neither with the first nor with the second dose. “The works show that with one dose, the degree of effectiveness is variable. International institutions recommend administering the second dose to be protected ”.

From a medical point of view, López suggests receiving the second dose. “The medical duty goes beyond how the vaccine was obtained.”

For Pizzi, “If an efficiency of 86% can be achieved with a single dose, if a level of antibodies is reached to have a herd effect, it is not inappropriate, in the face of a tragedy, to place the second dose beyond the time specified by the manufacturer “. “In other words, if instead of putting the second dose at 30 days, I put it at 60, the effectiveness would not be lost,” he said.

And after making sure that “in the history of medicine, vaccines have sometimes been used that do not exceed 50-58% effectiveness”, the epidemiologist added that “which, when administered in a massive manner, have obtained the desired epidemiological effect, to reach the herd effect range, generating containment dikes, and the advantage that the virus cannot pass ”.

“Today, the market is the boss and the demand is very high. But that will change in May, as some 98 vaccines from different countries arrive to prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2; which suddenly appeared in the world concert, like the French concert, of Sanofi Pasteur “, he said.

According to him, “France failed in the first stage of vaccination and is now ready; Russia has two vaccines in addition to Sputnik which are already ready, China has two others, the United States also has others, as well as Belgium and Australia ”. “The market will change and there will be more supply,” Pizzi dared.

In turn, Kambourian estimated that “in Argentina, the vaccination plan (against the coronavirus) he is very poor, whether or not there are vaccines “. “The little that we have, the little that we negotiate, we cannot apply in a timely manner; we have few vaccines and we apply them very slowly, ”he said.

Thus, one of the discussions that had arisen around COVID-19 vaccines concerned the obsession with immunizing the population and ending the pandemic, which forced a review of all vaccination protocols and led some experts suggest applying one dose instead of two, to give more people some immunity.

According to the epidemiologist and president of the ethics committee of the Carlos III Institute, Fernando García, administration of a single dose of one of the vaccines is called “imperfect immunity” which can promote the spread of mutations and cause the coronavirus and its variants to persist over time. The specialist explained that if a single dose does not confer sufficient immunity, “the benefits of vaccination are lost and the problem is that the degree of immunity from a single inoculation is unknown.” And the conclusion – for him – is that “the money is practically thrown away”.

“Perfect immunity must be complete, with the expected doses”, agree experts around the world.

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