Scientific community calls on Chilean government to apply third booster dose | The country is on alert after the arrival of the Delta variant

While the government of Chile is committed to the gradual deconfinement of the country clinging to a successful vaccination campaign, healthcare professionals warn that a third booster dose is needed. The first two confirmed cases of the Delta variant in the country have raised the alarm of the Chilean Association of Immunology (Asochin), What recommends buying vaccines that are more effective at preventing infections such as Pfizer, Astrazeneca and Moderna, instead of prioritizing that of the Chinese lab Sinovac. Another scientific study agrees on the urgency of a third dose since protection against infection and serious illness in vaccinated people over 70 years of age would have been lost. “Vaccines work and protect against entry of the virus, but their nature is transient. Today, the number of elderly people in intensive care (intensive care unit) Chile is the highest in the entire pandemic “, ensures in dialogue with Page 12 molecular biologist Tomás Pérez-Acle.

“Borderline” and third dose

For this reason, the association based in Santiago warns that it is necessary to “modify the course” and prioritize the use of vaccines that have been shown to “reduce virus transmission, as indicated for Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazeneca vaccines”. Likewise, they understand that a third dose should be given with one of these vaccines, avoiding Sinovac.

In another section of the letter, Asochin underlines the importance of assessing the impact of vaccination in the country, for which they ask the Ministry of Health to present “the disaggregated data of infected patients admitted to intensive care and deaths from coronavirus, in terms of people vaccinated and unvaccinated, type of vaccine used, disaggregated by age group, municipality of residence and suitably anonymized. “For the group of immunologists, these data” may help to emerge more quickly from the long pandemic and avoid further prolonging the suffering of thousands of people. “

Vaccine efficacy

Asochin’s position is similar to what was stated in a report on the effectiveness of the vaccination process in Chile developed by researchers at Fundación Ciencia y Vida, Universidad San Sebastián and Universidad de Valparaíso . The document concludes that the protection offered by vaccines against infection and severe disease development would have been lost in the case of people aged 70 and over, and would decline rapidly between those aged 60 to 69. For this reason, they also claim that “there is an urgent need to inoculate a third dose”.

“We need to move towards a booster dose as soon as possible, especially in populations over 70, given that we are facing the new Delta variant that it is already possible to assume that it will be dispersed. in the community of the country ” Pérez-Acle, who participated in the report. The deputy director of the Science & Vie Foundation talks about a report from the Sinovac spokesperson which indicates that the vaccine “loses three times its protective capacity against the Delta variant, which is why he himself recommends a booster dose. “

Another information that emerges from the survey is that, If doses of Sinovac continue to be a priority, it would not be possible to achieve the desired herd immunity even by vaccinating 100 percent of the Chilean population., although it could potentially be reached in the face of severe disease development. “If we really want to achieve herd immunization, we have to switch to a more effective variant, capable of drastically reducing transmission,” warns Pérez-Acle.

Delta and unconfined variant

About 3.8 million people were released from quarantine on Tuesday in Santiago, where hospitals have been on the brink of health collapse due to the pandemic for weeks. From this Thursday, most residents of the Chilean capital will enjoy free mobility from Monday to Friday, although quarantine will continue to govern the entire capital at weekends.

The regional president of the faculty of medicine (Colmed), Francisca Crispi, acknowledged that there was a downward trend in new coronavirus cases although he feared that at the same time the high occupancy rate of critical beds would be maintained (the figure is around 95%). “Many municipalities are moving to phase two and with the mobility pass we see a very high mobility, which makes us legitimately doubt that there could be a further increase in cases that we know the health system is not able to tolerateThe doctor said on DNA radio.

The Delta variant, which according to the World Health Organization (WHO) has already been detected in more than 90 countries, triggers alarms due to its high contagion capacity. In Chile, a country that has kept its borders closed since April except for essential travel, the native Indian strain was found last Thursday in a woman who traveled from the United States. Due to this situation, this Wednesday the 7th Guarantee Court of Santiago de Chile authorized the filing of a complaint against the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris. They accuse him of “Suspected fault” due to the lack of controls when entering the variant into the country.

The complaint was lodged by lawyer Luis Mariano Rendón, who indicated that “the authorities of the Ministry of Health, which should ensure strict compliance with the regulations, violate them and expose the population to immeasurable damage, promoting the spread of the more aggressive variant of the virus. “Rendón demanded that the case not go unpunished, and his request quickly resonated with part of the Chilean opposition.

The deputy of the Communist Party, Karol Cariola, argued that health minister “has accumulated enough reasons to even assess a constitutional charge”. Cariola indicated that within the Communist bench of deputies, they are analyzing this option due to “the lack of application of the protocols” which meant the entry of the 42-year-old woman, who presented symptoms compatible with the coronavirus , in the Transandin country.