COVID-19 | Why do WHO experts say that the Sinopharm vaccine requires three doses?

A committee of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that a third dose should be administered to people over 60 years of age vaccinated with the immunizers against the COVID-19 of the Chinese companies Sinovac and Sinopharm.

That third dose can be of another vaccine of another type, specified the Strategic Consultative Group of Experts (SAGE) of the WHO, in a press conference.

“All the evidence indicates that ”said at a press conference the Mexican expert Alejandro Cravioto, president of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts of the WHO (SAGE), referring to the Chinese sera.

, mainly in those under 60 years of age. Local studies have shown that the Chinese immunizer is highly effective in preventing severe forms of COVID-19: it is 94% effective in preventing deaths from COVID-19.

Sinopharm and Sinovac use inactivated virus technology. The first studies on the effectiveness of an additional injection for a two-dose schedule of an inactivated virus vaccine (Sinovac) show that it reduces the risk of hospitalization by up to 96%. In that country the third dose was AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Sinovac.

The WHO recommendation may affect vaccination programs not only in China, where most of the 2.2 billion doses administered are from these two laboratories, but also in countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa or Eastern Europe where it is They have imported and used these Chinese vaccines.

While Europe and the United States have not approved the use of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, the WHO has included them in its emergency use list and has asked the international community to do so to avoid discrimination at the entrance of travelers. from certain countries. The United States recently announced that it would accept travelers immunized with Sinopharm.

Cravioto indicated that these third doses should be first, an age group that has shown greater problems of response to the coronavirus after being vaccinated with Sinovac or Sinopharm.

The SAGE expert, a group of experts that met last week to discuss global vaccination strategies, also opened the door for the third anticovid dose for people inoculated with Sinovac or Sinopharm to be from one of the others approved by the WHO. (Pfizer, Moderna, Janssen, AstraZeneca).

With information from EFE

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