(Fighting against New Coronary Pneumonia) Dealing with mutations and expanding scope-experts explain new knowledge of vaccines
China News Service, Beijing, June 11, Wire Title: Dealing with Variation and Expanding Range-Experts Explain the New Knowledge of Vaccines
China News Agency reporter Gao Kai Li Chun
How effective is the new crown pneumonia vaccine in response to the current virus variants?
For more age groups, what is the schedule for future vaccination?
In response to recent public concerns about new vaccine issues, experts here again gave detailed explanations in Beijing on the 11th.
Data map: Medical staff are vaccinating the people.
Photo by Yin Liqin
About current effectiveness
There have been new confirmed cases in Guangdong in the past few days. Regarding the question “have the existing infected people have been vaccinated, and if they have been vaccinated, does it mean that the protection of the vaccine is insufficient?” Wang Huaqing, chief expert of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization program, said, So far, the protection rate of the new crown vaccine is not 100% whether it is the protective effect obtained in clinical trials or the protective effect obtained after the vaccine is marketed.
He pointed out that some people become infected after being vaccinated, but that does not mean that the vaccine is not effective enough.
Because protection effectiveness is a result of a group.
"I think the best way to prevent new coronary pneumonia is to get a vaccination. Through vaccination, if the immune system reaches a certain threshold among the population, the epidemic intensity of the new crown can be reduced or the epidemic can be blocked." Wang Huaqing said.
Regarding the protective effect of the vaccine against the mutant virus that caused this round of the epidemic, Feng Zijian, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that international studies have shown that this new virus may have a certain immune escape phenomenon, but several existing vaccines have Both still have considerable protective effects.
He pointed out that judging from the Guangdong epidemic, the proportion of people who have not been vaccinated among the confirmed cases who have become severely ill or have been severely ill is significantly higher than that of vaccinated people, indicating that there is still a protective effect on the mutant strain after vaccination. "This is a phenomenon we have observed. Although the number of observations is small, it is similar to the protective characteristics of other vaccines observed abroad against the new mutant virus." Feng Zijian said.
About the immune barrier
Cui Gang, the second-level inspector of the CDC of the National Health Commission of China, introduced that the current vaccination work in various parts of China is organized and implemented in accordance with the principles of continuous response, cascading advancement, highlighting the key points, ensuring safety and various groups of people in an orderly manner. .
As of June 10, China had received 845 million doses, covering 622 million people, ranking first in the world in terms of doses and the number of people covered.
He said that on the basis of doing a good job in inoculation of key areas and key populations at this stage, the next step will continue to carry out inoculation work for other populations to further increase the coverage of populations, so that more people can be effectively protected as soon as possible. .
Wang Huaqing also emphasized that for China, the most important thing at the moment is to establish a herd immunity barrier and eliminate the immune gap.
Regarding the question of what to do if the antibody level drops after the vaccination reaches a certain period of time, Wang Huaqing said that the drop in the antibody level of the vaccine does not mean that it has no protection.
He pointed out that the immunization program is the core of the immunization strategy, including the immunization law produced by the current two doses. Does the change affect the immunization effect?
Does its change affect the durability of immune protection?
Does the variant strain affect the protective efficacy of the vaccine?
Regarding whether to carry out booster immunization with three doses of vaccination, Wang Huaqing said, “We need to evaluate the safety, and only after comprehensively obtaining sufficient evidence can we decide whether to boost immunization. Therefore, there are still many subsequent studies to be completed.”
About expanding the scope
Regarding the scope of application of the new crown vaccine, Cui Gang introduced on the same day that the population of new crown vaccine users in China first started with adults over 18 years old. Now the oldest adult vaccination age is over 100 years old, and more than 800 million doses have been inoculated. The largest number of doses in a single country.
"In these large-scale vaccinations, a large amount of data has proved that our country's new crown vaccine is safe and effective." He said that the inactivated vaccines developed by the Sinopharm Beijing Institute and Beijing Kexing Zhongwei Company are conditionally listed. Approved. Following adult use, expanded clinical trials for people aged 3 to 17 have been continued, and more data have been accumulated. These data have been reported to the country in a timely manner. After careful review and verification by experts, it has fully proved that this The crowd is safe.
"These results show that their ability to induce antibodies is also very strong. Combined with the domestic epidemic situation, and with the approval of relevant state departments, the new crown vaccines of Sinopharm Beijing Institute and Beijing Kexing Zhongwei Co., Ltd. are in need. It can be used for vaccination for people aged 3 to 17. In the follow-up, we will do a good job of vaccination according to the epidemic situation, prevention and control needs, and the characteristics of the relevant population." Cui Gang said.
Regarding whether the elderly over 60 can be vaccinated, Cui Gang said that the health protection of the elderly has always been a key content in the entire prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic.
He pointed out that in the early stage, the National Health Commission carried out vaccination work for the elderly who had a need for vaccination and were in better health.
At the same time, in order to guide local areas to do a good job in vaccinating various groups of people, including the elderly over 60 years old, the Vaccination Work Coordination Group of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council specially formulated the "New Coronavirus Vaccination Technical Guidelines (First Edition)".
A series of unified vaccination suggestions and specific requirements have been put forward for the vaccination work for the elderly over 60 years old.
Cui Gang said, “We have always adhered to the principle of prudence and prudence for large-scale population vaccination policies. The formulation of vaccination policies requires comprehensive consideration of infectious disease prevalence, disease burden, vaccine effectiveness and safety and other factors.” (Finish)