Epidemiologist Catterina Ferreccio, member of the Minsal's COVID-19 advisory board: "It is reasonable for older adults to be offered a third dose"
At The Counter in La Clave, the specialist also referred to the changes of the Step by Step Plan, pointing out that we must be cautious because "we have new variants that are showing enough aggression in terms of their transmission in Europe that are going to increase circulation, then, that transfer of that responsibility to us as citizens is a challenge.".
Despite improved pandemic data, the debate continues on the possibility of a third dose to the population to protect against the new variants circulating of Covid-19.
At The Counter in La Clave, Catterina Ferreccio, epidemiologist at the Catholic University and member of the COVID-19 advisory council of the Ministry of Health, maintained that while "there is no urgency at this time" to apply a third inoculation, said that "it seems reasonable that older adults should be offered a third dose". On the other hand, "in young people it is not so necessary", stressed.
The expert also referred to the study launched last week on the Sinovac vaccine carried out on 2,300 people presented by Dr. Alexis Kalergis, But he cautioned that it was done "with people under 60 and they are healthy. So it's not very comparable, to talk about population efficacy".
"That study speaks of 100% in 2,300 people" who did not die, but "that's not what's happening in Chile, here we are around 90%", ferreccio indicated.
The epidemiologist stated that the only study that shows "efficacy and safety" is the study conducted by the Ministry of Health that "was performed on two million people.. This research "sees the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine in real life", because "it is the one that has studied the entire Chilean population that are several million".
This study by the Ministry "shows an efficacy of 80% in terms of hospitalization and serious illnesses and a percentage of 90% with respect to death", Therefore, "we have enough to feel confident that there is a remote possibility of contagion by someone else", said.
"There are people who are going to die with Sinovac with two doses, and that's already happening.", but this is much less likely to happen after inoculations, the epidemiologist says.
Back to school
As for the changes to the Step-by-Step Plan, the specialist says that we must be cautious because "we have new variants that are showing enough aggression in terms of their transmission in Europe that are going to increase circulation, then, that transfer of that responsibility to us as citizens is a challenge.".
In the case of the return to schools, the member of the Epidemiological Council of the Minsal asked the Government to have a "sufficient infrastructure to be able to do classes". For example, it has to ensure "ventilation that ensures that no virus accumulates in the air because we know that children are transmitters", raises.
"Going back to school activities is going to start to build up the virus that we still have.. Unfortunately we don't have a low enough active case rate that's not a risk.", finished the epidemiologist.