The UK will study the effectiveness of a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine

In the future, the possibility of reinvigorating the immune response with an additional booster, to be added to the second, is not excluded. And the United Kingdom launches a study to understand which is the best strategy (and vaccine) to do it

(photo: Diana Polekhina on Unsplash) At different rates and strategies from country to country, but also from region to region , has been vaccinated for months now. And the results are starting to show. But we also look at a distance, at what could happen in the months to come if not in the years to come, even with all the understandable baggage of uncertainties. How long does immunity from the virus last? How much is that from the vaccine? Can the emergence of new variants compromise their effectiveness? What awaits us after the summer, after these first waves of vaccinations? It is with these open questions on the table that the UK has just announced the launch of a clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a third dose of the anti-Covid vaccine. A possibility that, for what has been said, has been discussed in reality for some time, even in our part.

The experiment launched in the UK is called Cov-Boost, will involve just under 3 thousand participants, and will compare the effectiveness of seven different Covid vaccines as boosters (third dose) compared to controls (for which a meningococcal vaccine will be used). The aim - we read on the page dedicated to the study, led by the University Hospital Southampton Nhs Foundation Trust - is to understand which vaccine (or vaccines) is most useful in enhancing the immune response in those who have already received two doses (currently considered a cycle complete for the product of AstraZeneca and that of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, unlike, but only for now, that of Johnson & Johnson).

There are seven vaccines that will be used as a third dose - after full cycles of AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BionNTech, some approved, some still under evaluation or study. In addition to these two, the products of Moderna, Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), Novavax, Valneva, Curevac will be used as boosters, the latter also used in half doses (in order to be able to use more total doses or reduce side effects) . The study will cover fully vaccinated over 30s by January 2021 and will last one year (from the first dose), during which experts will examine blood samples to test the immune response of the participants, who are asked to complete a diary of all possible symptoms. associated with vaccination in the first month to follow.

While the United Kingdom launches its trial, the first results on the effectiveness of a possible third dose against some variants of the coronavirus had already arrived in recent days from the Moderna company . One option is that of the third dose on which Pfizer-BioNTech are also working.


Politics - 11 minutes ago

The rules for reopening in view of the summer

adsJSCode ("nativeADV1", [[2,1]], "true", "1", "native", "read-more", "1"); Medicine - 5 hours ago

How widespread are the variants of Sars-Cov-2 in Europe

adsJSCode ("nativeADV2", [[2,1]], "true", " 2 "," native "," read-more "," 2 "); Jobs - 18 hours ago

What aid is foreseen by the new Support decree

Topics

Coronavirus Vaccines globalData.fldTopic = "Coronavirus, Vaccines"

You may also be interested in

This opera is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.