“It is very good news to know that vaccines are being updated”
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Professor Luís Graça

Luís Graça, Professor at FMUL and a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Medicine (iMM), spoke to Canal S + about group immunity and the question of postponing the second dose of the vaccine.

In a decision announced yesterday by the government about delaying the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, from 21 to 28 days, so as to be able to vaccinate another 100 thousand Portuguese, the Professor praised the measure. It is based on the evidence of studies carried out in the United Kingdom, which found that the delay of up to 42 days, even for older people, does not reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine.

"It is very good news to know that vaccines are being updated". Luís Graça referred to the Moderna pharmaceutical company that updated its vaccine to respond more effectively to the new SARS COV 2 variant originating in South Africa, stressing that the priority continues to be “to protect vulnerable population from hospitalization and death.”

Regarding the introduction in Europe of the Russian Sputnik vaccine and of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, the Professor stated that “it is important to be aware that in Europe, the US or in the United Kingdom, we demand a very high quality standard of medicines”. He pointed out that “all drugs used in our countries must comply with criteria that ensure that they are safe and effective. Often, this effectiveness is not just related to a scientific article published in a journal. It is necessary to ensure that, from batch to batch, the product is consistent.”

The researcher said that "group immunity depends on more than one variable", explaining that the new SARS CoV-2 mutations with greater transmissibility, as is the case with the strain from the United Kingdom, necessarily require a greater number of immunized people to contain the advance of the pandemic.

Full interview HERE.