ARCHIVED - Spain delays decision on third Covid vaccine dose
The Minister for Health announces a study into the duration of Covid vaccine protection
Despite growing pressure on the Spanish government to announce that a third dose of coronavirus vaccine will be administered in order to boost protection against Covid-19, the Minister for Health, Carolina Darias, again postponed any decision at a press conference after the latest meeting of the Inter-territorial Public Health Committee on Wednesday August 25.
Sra Darias clarified that Spain “is prepared” to administer a third dose, a policy already endorsed by the French government, but remained non-committal on the questions of whether this strategy policy will be adopted and in which sectors of the population. She remains of the view that the most prudent course of action is to study when a third dose might be necessary and for which groups within the population, despite there being a growing body of evidence to suggest that the effectiveness of the vaccines tends to diminish after around six months.
While the stance of the European Medicines Agency on this issue has yet to be defined, the Ministry of Health in Spain has commissioned two studies to determine more accurately the duration of the protection afforded by the vaccines and the phenomenon of “long Covid”. The study into the duration of vaccine protection has been prompted by a surge in outbreaks among residents of homes for the elderly and care homes, who were among the first to be inoculated early in 2021, and will be performed by the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid.
It has been hypothesized that immunity may last for a shorter time in older people, and that the quality of antibodies generated may be lower than in younger people.
During her press conference, the Minister also confirmed that a further 3.6 million vaccine doses will be available for distribution to Spain’s regional health services this week, and that it is expected that next week the proportion of the population to have been fully vaccinated will reach 70 per cent.
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