Santander (European Press). – Virologists, pediatricians, and vaccine experts say flu and COVID-19 vaccinations won’t be universal this fall because the two are “complementary” despite “minor differences.”
So, on the one hand, it echoes the recommendation to vaccinate “all” children six months to five years old, the age group most vulnerable to this infection, for seasonal flu. On the other hand, they said the coronavirus vaccine would only be aimed at the “target population”, that is, those with risk factors such as age or previous medical history.
Raúl Ortiz de Lejarazu, scientific advisor and honorary director of the National Influenza Center of Valladolid, met with the coordinator of the Andalusian Covid-19 vaccination program in Santander on Thursday. This was explained at a press conference co-hosted by Pediatrician David Moreno, Coordinator of Andalusia’s COVID-19 Vaccination Program. Vaccines of the Spanish Pediatric Association, and Ignacio Salamanca, coordinator of the research and investigation department of the Pediatric Institute of Seville.
The three appeared in front of the media while participating in the “Ninth Vaccine Update and New Approach Conference”. Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccination schedule has changed, the course taught by the Menendez Pelayo International University.
The Director of the Influenza Center and the UIMP Curriculum pointed out that the Spanish Pediatric Association recommended the vaccination of all children last year, and in this regard underlined that the upcoming event will be free.
Unlike COVID-19, as he puts it, “flu kills healthy children, but very rarely,” but depending on the severity of the virus and the conditions it causes, between nine and fourteen children and adolescents die each year, “half of them “There were no deaths and there were additional risk factors.
Thus, he recalls, the World Health Organization recommended more than a decade ago in this sense, because influenza – Salamanca added – “is not a disease of the elderly”, and it is as important to protect children as anyone else. s population.
At this point they compare, while 3 out of 10 minors get the flu, only 10% of people over 18 get the flu, although the problem is that for many people over 65, This could be their “last” infection.
Ortiz said flu and COVID-19 vaccinations are “parallel” but not “identical,” before saying that vaccines against the coronavirus are aimed at the elderly and vulnerable, as well as health workers, which is his goal this year. priorities. World Health Organization itself. The latter represented a “deficit” for “vaccinated” countries like Spain, he added.
Virologists explain that 75% to 80% of the population in rich countries are now immune to the new coronavirus because they have been infected with the virus, vaccinated, or both, so it is now recommended to apply it only to the target population, For example the elderly.
As he warns, age is a risk factor, and since the death rate of those infected increases by 1% or 1.5% every five years after the age of 65, these people should not be “out of a doubt” when it comes to getting vaccinated.
Asked which vaccine to get, Ortiz suggested using one that is “as advanced as possible” and “minimizes” the escape of the new coronavirus, which has not yet stabilized as it continues to mutate .
In other words, Moreno points out in this regard that, this fall, drugs against the isolated virus strains should be used.
The pediatrician focused on recommendations to vaccinate people with medical conditions, including children, in “very rare cases,” he said, such as people with congenital immune deficiencies or undergoing treatments such as chemotherapy. And the virus has a “minimal or zero” fatality rate for healthy children under five.
Coronavirus will live forever
As for the pandemic itself, Ortiz noted that its acute phase has passed, and the early post-pandemic phase has passed, so now we are moving towards the post-pandemic phase, because this virus “has been with us all our lives.” . And removing those factors that affect humans is “difficult.”
However, his prediction for the next decade is that it “may” be better suited to our species as well as a vaccine, and that the new coronavirus will have its “niche affected”, he concludes.