The vaccination plan is proceeding swiftly. The months lost at the beginning of the year have been recovered by attesting to today, data from the Ministry of Health, 13,028,350 people vaccinated in Italy, or 24.01% of the population over 12 (only those who have completed the cycle vaccinal).
There is a but that is highlighted in recent days, also considering the various open days of the Regions – from Piedmont to Puglia, from Calabria to Emilia Romagna – and that is the perplexity about the vaccines administered in relation to the age of the vaccine.
In particular in Liguria in recent days the regional councilor Ferruccio Sansahighlighted through a post on Facebook the appeal of 24 vaccinators on the “weak point of the AstraZeneca vaccine” and announced that it will submit a question to the Council.
Doctors point out that Az “can cause venous thrombosis associated with a decrease in platelets, which occurs 5-15 days after vaccination and can have a fatal outcome”.
“This complication has been described in people aged 20 to 55, but by far the most affected people are young women. Vaccine-induced thrombosis, which is not caused by RNA vaccines, is very rare. Obviously, however, in a mass vaccination even a very rare but potentially lethal complication can cause a significant number of deaths, even in subjects who, due to sex and age, such as young women, have practically no risk of dying from Covid “, have written the signatory doctors.
“The AstraZeneca vaccine has never been approved by the US drug agency (FDA) – they continued – and has been eliminated from the vaccination program of various European countries, such as Austria, Norway and Denmark. Others have put restrictions on the use of AZ: in Italy it was recommended the preferential use in people over 60 years of age, in France in the over 55s. Also in England in March AstraZeneca was limited to the over 30s, and the limitation has now been extended to over 40s. Furthermore, those who have already had AstraZeneca as their first dose, the second is given with an RNA vaccine. In Germany, citizens can choose their vaccine. Who has taken AZ as the first dose, can choose an RNA vaccine for the second “.
The point on the recommendation is also touched upon byLorenzo Ruffino , contributor to Political Report and Youtrend, who just yesterday underlined in a tweet that “Janssen and AstraZeneca are recommended by AIFA for those over 60 years old. Despite this, in the last month 58% of the Janssen doses and 25% of the first AstraZeneca doses went to people under 60 (of which 13% and 7% to under 40) “.
In fact, in the AIFA circular dated 7 April, while maintaining the opening from 18 years upwards, we read that “it is stated that its preferential use is recommended for people over the age of 60”.
The 24 Ligurian doctors therefore pointed the finger at the open days opened both with Astrazeneca and with Johnson & Johnson. “In subjects under 40 who do not have comorbidities, the risk of venous thrombosis with thrombocytopenia is sufficient to strongly advise against vaccination of AstraZeneca. In fact, in this age group the lethality for Covid-19 in Italy is close to zero, and hospitalization is very rare. Therefore, the possibility of having platelet thrombosis following vaccination with AstraZeneca, although very rare, represents a higher risk in healthy young people than Covid-19. On the other hand, in subjects over 40 the risk of serious illness, hospitalization and death from covid-19 clearly exceeds the risk of platelet thrombosis ”, they highlighted.
However, the response of the president of the Medical Association of Genoa, Alessandro Bonsignore, and the reaction of other regional politicians was not long in coming, as reported by the 19th Century. “I don’t like this story. I want to understand right away if there are grounds for opening disciplinary proceedings against these colleagues. We are talking about a group of voluntary vaccinators who must support the vaccination campaign and not raise doubts and suspicions in people: how do you say that AstraZeneca’s vaccine can be dangerous when it has been authorized by Aifa
I am not the scientific authority and certain words do damage. In Liguria, as in all of Italy, there has been an extraordinary commitment for months to vaccinate the greatest number of people to reduce the risks of Covid: it is right to carry on the scientific debate, but such a delicate issue cannot be fed to social networks “.
The Cambiamo regional councilors also replied to councilor Sansa, announcing a question in the council. “We are amazed and at the same time embittered to read what was reported today by Councilor Ferruccio Sansa, who copied and pasted a letter, not even recent, from some volunteer vaccinating doctors on the administration with AstraZeneca to under 60s”.
“We are embittered because with that gesture is once again disqualifying the work of the Ligurian healthcare which is grappling with a gigantic effort and is obtaining some of the best results in Italy – continued the councilors -. And we are amazed because the explanation to Sansa is soon given: the decision to administer AstraZeneca to the under 60s was taken by Aifa, the Italian Medicines Agency, and the Liguria Region has adapted by offering this possibility only and exclusively on a voluntary basis. Furthermore, during the booking phase, the characteristics of the vaccine chosen are disclosed several times and no open day has been organized with files outside the clinics as has happened elsewhere, but a certain quantity of doses has been made available in a parallel line. We also want to remind you that in several other countries, including England, AstraZeneca has been administered to a large part of the population with comforting results. We really do not understand, therefore, the reason for this action by the councilor which risks confusing the ideas of the citizens ”.
