This is the ‘elephant in the room’ that so many countries are downplaying. The double-vaccinated can still transmit SARS-CoV-2; they can still become infected – and in some cases they will end up in hospital with Covid-19 and die from it.
In other words, the divisions being aired about ‘vaccinated’ versus ‘non-vaccinated’ people (click here) are just that: divisive – without the benefit of solid back-up data.
There are studies that insist the fully-vaccinated are every bit as likely to transmit as the non-vaccinated (click here). There are studies that refute this (click here). No-one can put their hand in the fire, mainly because the vaccination roll-out is so ‘new’.
Thus focus now is on ‘second generation’ vaccines that will tackle these ‘issues’, and which will start being administered, reports SIC television news today, during 2022.
Picking up on a report by Spain’s Efe news agency, SIC focuses on the assurance by Spanish investigator Antonio Carmona of the Fisabio Foundation that these second generation vaccines “will not be better or worse than the current ones, but complementary”.
One of the scientific coordinators of the international project ‘COVIDRIVE’ – set up to assess the effectiveness of multiple Covid-19 vaccines – Antonio Carmona told Efe that some of the upcoming vaccines will base themselves on the “same technological platforms that have been used to develop first generation vaccines”.
For now, with phase three trials ongoing, there are vaccines that show “potential to generate a more significant sterilising immune response than those currently available, so they would contribute to generate more effective protection against virus transmission”, he said.
“If EMA, the European Medicines Agency, presents a positive estimate of the results on safety and efficacy in the next few months, some (of these new vaccines) could be authorised during next year”, adds Efe.
The other ‘big question’ still hanging however is how long-lasting are any of the vaccines’ immune-response capabilities. This is why scientists looking ‘beyond vaccines’ are trying to encourage pharmaceutical companies to take up their research (click here).
