Pilar Garrido, president of Facme.
Covid-19 Advisory Council Federation of Medical Scientific Associations of Spain (Facme) representatives of 13 scientific societies actively participated in the preparation of the document ‘Infectious dose autumn 2022. (4th dose) con mRNA vaccines against Covid-19′. Its goal is to answer possible doubts about the application of vaccination in the current situation.
In its study on booster doses, Facme refers to the risk of new variants with higher transmissibility and indicates that “the administration of a booster dose has the objective increasing protection, taking into account the progressive decline over time of immunity generated by vaccines and infections, together with the fact that they circulate variants with high escape to that previous immunity”.
The document refers to the recommendations of the Inter-Territorial Health Council on candidate groups for vaccination. That includes population aged 60 and over, residents and people with chronic cardiovascular, neurological or respiratory diseases, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, chronic liver disease, cancer and malignant blood diseases or immunosuppression, among others. Vaccination is also recommended for health and social-health personnel.
After reviewing the existing scientific evidence, Facme concluded that “new adapted vaccines generate a greater neutralizing antibody response against selected variants, and the data show that they can enhance and extend protection against the different variants that emerge as the virus evolves”.
The studies mentioned refer to “the administration of the fourth dose (the second booster dose) in Israel from January 2022, which was shown to reduce the probability of contracting the disease more than twice symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infectionmore than three times more likely to be hospitalized due to Covid-19 and almost four times more likely to die compared to receiving three doses of the mRNA vaccine.”
In addition, “data from cohort follow-up in United Kingdom UK Cov-Boost, show an advantage of the fourth dose over the third when humoral and cellular responses were analyzed in a group of 166 subjects who received the fourth dose with the original mRNA vaccine.” “In this study – the document adds – an increase of more than 12 times in specific titers of IgG against SARS-CoV-2 protein S and more than six times in cellular immunity was observed compared to the third dose”.
Another study conducted in the United States by The CDC showed that “adults who received the fourth dose (the second booster dose with the parent mRNA vaccine) were eight times less likely to be hospitalized and admitted to the intensive care unit than subjects vaccinated with three doses during the study period. circulation Omicron BA.4/BA.5″.
Facme points out that the profile of side effects is the same as with previous doses and that their frequency and intensity appear to be similar or less than after previous doses.
Vaccination against long-term Covid-19
Another of the questions answered by the same report is: What is The value of vaccination against long-term Covid-19? On this topic, it is indicated that “there are studies that included a control group and that showed that the administration of at least two doses of the mRNA vaccine is associated with a lower risk of most common symptoms of long-term Covid-19”.
In addition, it is specified that “the conclusions of these studies show that the mortality and the risk of consequences in people who suffered from the disease were lower in subjects who had previously received the mRNA vaccine”.
Within the analyzed continuations “we can state pulmonary (interstitial lung disease, hypoxemia and dyspnea), cardiovascular (atrial fibrillation, heart failure, coronary heart disease), pulmonary embolism, acute renal failure and increased insulin requirements in subjects with metabolic disorders,” the text said, adding that “another study also confirmed that two-dose vaccination reduced the percentage of subjects who continued to report post-infection symptoms such as headache, weakness in the lower limbs and that these symptoms are more common in people over 60 years old”.
Practical recommendations
Finally, the document includes practical instructions such as the convenience of waiting at least 5 months after the last dose of vaccine or covid infection, although this period can be reduced to three months in case very vulnerable people such as those over 80 years oldresidents of centers for the elderly or people with weakened immunity.
It also recommends simultaneous use with the flu vaccine, although it points out some exceptions to this general rule related to the occurrence of certain rare side effects to the previous dose of the vaccine (for example, myocarditis).
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