“We may soon have” anti-Covid “vaccines that screen the new variants and hopefully maintain their effectiveness for a longer period”. Currently “we are working to ensure that the next vaccines are capable of conferring immunization at the level of the mucous membranes and will probably be administered as a nasal spray”. This was explained by the director of the Mario Negri Irccs Institute for Pharmacological Research, Giuseppe Remuzzi, in an interview on ‘Libero’.
“Viruses such as Sars-CoV-2, respiratory syncytial virus and the common cold – he underlines – replicate above all in the nasal mucosa. This means that they do not stimulate the immune system in such an important way as the viruses that replicate everywhere, measles and rubella for example. This is why acquired immunity against Sars-CoV-2 fades after a certain period”.
As regards instead the fears for the new variants in circulation, in particular Kraken, it seems that the latter is not lethal “more than the Omicron ‘sisters’ – highlights Remuzzi – In the New York area and in the North of the United States, where now Kraken reaches a diffusion of 80%, hospital admissions have not increased compared to states where it does not reach 20%.However, this variant is capable of escaping antibodies and has an extraordinary affinity with the receptor, the protein it represents the door of entry of the virus into the cells”. Fortunately, the expert points out, “even with this variant, the third and fourth doses protect the over-60s and the frail from serious illness”.
The symptoms of the infection are the usual: “Sore throat, runny nose, tiredness, dry cough and, not always, fever. Usually, smell and taste are not lost”, remarked Remuzzi. And in any case, he points out, “at the moment there is no Kraken alarm in Italy given that 90% of our positives are infected with Omicron 5. But such an important diffusion in the US suggests that the same could happen to us” . So the advice “for the over-60s is to take the fourth dose, for the over-80s and those who are frail to take the fifth”.
As for China “according to Airfinity, a medical data analysis company based in London, the daily” Covid “infections are today around 4 million. The deaths in the next few days will reach 25 thousand and at the end of April they could touch 2 millions”.
“Beijing has set itself an impossible goal by pursuing the mirage of zero Covid, with very strict closures that have led to economic problems and exasperated the people. It all resulted in violent protests and so the Government had to open. But reopen completely, as if nothing happened, it was a gamble. With one and a half billion people who could become infected, anything can happen “, explains Remuzzi again, who denies the widespread idea that the Chinese vaccine does not work.
“In Chile, on a sample of 10 million people – reports the expert – the ‘New England Journal of Medicine’ reports that the Chinese vaccine prevents the disease in 65% of cases, hospitalization in 90% and death in “86%. In Hong Kong, out of 7.4 million people examined, today we know from a study published in the ‘Lancet’ that the Chinese vaccine offers protection comparable to that of mRna vaccines. Not only that. When the vaccine Chinese CoronaVac has been compared with mRna vaccines, it has been seen that after the third dose the Beijing one is even more effective than ours, especially in people over eighty”. China “is at risk not because of the quality of its vaccine, but because of how it was used – Remuzzi points out – It seems that workers have been privileged, while a worrying number of people over sixty have not been vaccinated and remain vulnerable. This it’s not a scientific question, but a political and social one. They have a very different sensibility from ours”.
