The City is testing the vaccine combination in volunteers: Sputnik V with AstraZeneca and Sinopharm

In view of concern over the lack of second doses of the vaccine Sputnik V which prevents thousands of Argentines from completing their vaccination schedule, the city government will launch in the coming days a scientific study to assess whether it is possible to combine Russian serum with doses of AstraZeneca and Sinopharm.

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The information was confirmed at TN.com.ar by sources in Buenos Aires, who foresaw that during these hours they were working on the schematization of the call for volunteers. The objective of the analysis is to verify the safety and vaccination resulting from the association of the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine with the serum developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford and the doses of the Chinese state laboratory Sinopharm. It will be carried out on a group of 200 to 400 people of different ages.

In a next step and when the doses are already in Argentina, the combination of Sputnik with CanSino vaccines will be evaluated, which is developing another Chinese laboratory with which the national government and the city of Buenos Aires, as well as other jurisdictions, are negotiating.

“We are going to launch a study combining Sputnik with other vaccines. These are studies showing that the combination of doses has no serious adverse effects and a high degree of immunogenicity», They indicated from the City.

As he could know TN.com.ar will be summoned volunteers of different age groups who have already received component I of Sputnik V for a second dose of another vaccine. The final result will be submitted to the Nation’s Ministry of Health.

This kind of analysis is already done in other parts of the world. In fact, the Gamaleya Institute itself is conducting a study to check whether it is possible to combine Sputnik V with AstraZeneca, the results of which are unknown to date.

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The series of evaluations will take place within the framework of a possible community circulation of Delta variant of the coronavirus, the most dangerous of the current bloodlines which circulate in the country and in the world. This tension has led the government to restrict to just 600 people allowed per day to enter the country from abroad.

Although 350,000 doses of component 2 of Sputnik V have arrived in Argentina in the last few hours, this number is not sufficient since there are over 6 million people who need to complete their immunization schedules with this serum. It is in this context that the national government and the provinces analyze the application of other vaccines to immunize the greatest number of people with two doses before the Delta variant enters the national territory. So far, three cases have been detected, which have managed to be isolated.

Given this scenario, Chief of Staff Santiago Cafiero himself admitted that they were awaiting the outcome of scientific studies that support the combination of serums. As revealed by this media, Casa Rosada has signed an agreement for 5,400,000 of the vaccine called “Convidencia”, which does not require two doses.

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This serum -which is developed by the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences- has a viral vector similar to AstraZeneca-Oxford and Gam-COVID-Vax from the Gamaleya Institute.

Until now, government policy has been to apply as many doses 1 as possible, but the Delta variant could change this pattern. At Casa Rosada, they understand that 90% immunization may need to be given to this group as the line circulates in community.

For this, it will be necessary to apply the two doses and modify the recommendation made for each province. For what 90 day window between first and second application could be shortened to 60 days. Everything is a matter of analysis and will depend on the study carried out by the experts who advise the Government and the opinion of the provinces, which are those who carry out the inoculation in each jurisdiction.