Advisory committee gives way to bivalent vaccines against COVID-19, which for specialists must be administered to the entire population

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) approved the use in Ecuador of bivalent vaccines.

The Minister of Health, José Ruales, said that they have already requested -through the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Covax mechanism- that laboratories make offers.

The idea, he indicated, would be to do a booster vaccination, annually, in principle to those people who are more vulnerable and more likely to get sick or die who have already received booster vaccines.

He clarified that it’s not a booster, instead of the third or fourth injection, but for people who got the booster.

He pointed out that he will continue to administer reinforcements with the vaccines that are in the country, which have an impact on reducing morbidity, as well as serious illness and death, to those who have not been vaccinated, especially the most vulnerable.

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According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, there are about ten people who die from COVID-19 a week, of which 95% are over 65 years of age who did not have the full vaccination schedule or reinforcements.

Ruales explained that the bivalent vaccines are made up of two different strains: the so-called ancestral and those that were frequent in the past months.

“But these strains, BA.5 and BA.4, which are subvariants of omicron, are no longer circulating in the world, in Ecuador,” he said in an interview in Radio Events.

He added that in the United States and Europe the prevalent strain is the XBB that will become predominant.

For this reason, he maintained, a vaccine is needed that is as close as possible to the omicron variants or to the variants of the new strains that are circulating.

The Government hopes that the new vaccines will arrive in the country in the first quarter of 2023.

For Enrique Terán, professor and university researcher in biomedicine and health, there are two problems with the decision of the Ministry of Health to acquire the bivalent vaccine.

The first is, he explained, that the vaccine “culture” has been lost, while the first booster reached 53% of the population and the second 14%, for which reason he wondered which people are going to get the bivalent ?

Data from that State portfolio show that until January 18, 55.79% of the population had received the first reinforcement, and only 2,740,374 people had attended to receive the second.

For Terán, the second problem is that with the low rate of tests to detect the disease, carried out at the moment, the number of infections is underestimated and therefore the population perceives vaccination as unnecessary, and “believes that it is better to get infected.”

That makes the prolonged number of COVID-19 cases dangerous in the future because of the complications already known, he said.

Despite his questions, he considered that it is necessary to use them, as he argued that this is how the strains derived from the omicron variant are covered.

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Andrea Gómez, a doctor, public health specialist and epidemiologist, commented that these vaccines are already being used in countries like Brazil, Chile, Peru or Panama.

Gómez highlighted the effectiveness of the vaccines, mainly in those people who are at higher risk of serious illness.

He added that there is a low percentage of coverage for booster doses, to which he adds that there has been a false sense of security on the part of the Government, and there has not been such a strong campaign that motivates the population to get immunized.

“What these bivalent vaccines do is adapt to new variants, in this case omicron, which is the new variant that is circulating, mostly in the countries; then it makes our body ready to be able to defend itself against this type of variants”, explained Gómez.

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In his opinion, the inoculation of this vaccine should begin with those people who are most predisposed to a possible serious disease, since they have problems with their immune system, the elderly, and then through massive campaigns cover the entire population.

When making an evaluation of the pandemic in Ecuador, the epidemiologist stated that there is an increase in cases, but there has not been a great increase in hospitalizations.

He insisted on the precautions of wearing a mask in closed places when there are many people, washing hands, and having vaccinations up to date.

The Government expects to purchase 3.5 million doses of bivalent vaccines. (YO)