The third dose of the vaccine will likely be entrusted to primary care physicians

The third dose of vaccine? In all likelihood it will have to be done. And no, it’s by no means too early to think about it – even if the majority of Italians have yet to receive the first (or only, in the case of the single-dose Janssen vaccine). Because they will have to administer it especially general practitioners: what we are seeing in these months, and we will see again until autumn, will have to disappear. Hubs and large structures will be dismantled, or nearly so, to return to manage the follow-up of the vaccination campaign through local medicine.

The Minister of Health spoke on the show “Che tempo che fa” on Rai3 Roberto Speranza spoke precisely of the possible third dose, which it will also offer protection against the different variants in circulation – by the way, the so-called Indian in Italy is at 1% – since it will be carried out with updated products. “A third dose of the vaccine will most likely be required, a recall that will likely be “modified” to cover the variations. It will therefore be necessary to pass from an extraordinary phase to one phase ordinary and I think that this new ordinariness can be entrusted to our extraordinary network of general practitioners »explained the exponent of Liberi e Uguali. «Now we have to run and everyone is busy», he added, «but I think that in the long run, gyms, congress centers or stations will have to return to fulfilling the roles for which they are assigned“. In short, during the summer we will continue to see a great territorial mobilization, the involvement of companies, mobile units and indeed large hubs: then it will be necessary for general practitioners and hospitals, given the time they will have available, to take care of the recall that for many it will arrive in 2022 well advanced.

For now, only Great Britain, which started early with the study called “Cov Boost” on 2,886 participants to verify its effectiveness, has announced an almost certain recall starting from September. But experiments of this type are underway in various places around the world, as in the United States or Germany, where it is imagined that the third injection will necessarily have to be with a product based on messenger RNA (the German CureVac will soon be added to Pfizer and Moderna). For example, a Spanish study of 600 volunteers found that the vaccine mix (first dose AstraZeneca, second Pfizer) is highly effective and does not cause problems, and Marco Cavaleri, head of the vaccine strategy of Ema. We will therefore go in that direction. Moderna, for example, is testing a modified vaccine to be administered in a reduced dose and specific against the South African variant and, apparently, also effective against the Indian one, ideal for those who have already received the first two doses. Not to mention the efforts for the polyvalent vaccines, which in a couple of years could give the world a single good injection against influenza and several strains of Sars-CoV-2.

In short, the shared opinion is that a third dose will be inevitable. It will be necessary to understand i times whether already in the autumn for the first vaccinated at the beginning of 2021 or for all starting from 2022. In the meantime, it will also be necessary to fully understand theevolution of the pandemic in terms of variants and duration of immunity.

“At this moment we do not have absolute certainties but all our scientists tell us that it will be very likely that we will have to resort to a third dose as a necessary booster, possibly there may be modifications of the vaccines to better cover some variants – concluded Speranza on the point – I have 42 years, after June 3 I will also be able to have the vaccine. I chose to get vaccinated at my family doctor and I think it is right: we must pass from a phase of extraordinary to a phase of ordinary in the management of this epidemic. Today we have to run and get an extra vaccine, but if I think of a longer period we have to go back to ordinary management ».