We already have results of research regarding third doses of COVID-19 vaccine and they confirm our assumptions - the chief of the Polish Association of Epidemiologists and Infectiologists professor Robert Flisiak told TVN24 on Monday. In his opinion, "there is still time to follow in Britain's footsteps".
Since the start of the vaccination programme until July 10, Poland has administered 31,258,249 doses of various COVID-19 vaccines. 17,374,533 people received one dose, and 14,938,143 were fully inoculated with either the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine or two jabs of AstraZeneca, Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech.
In late April, chief of BioNTech company said that the third dose the Pfizer vaccine should provide full immunity against SARS-CoV-2.
"We already have the first results of research and they confirm our assumptions. Third doses will be necessary for certain groups namely people with immunity deficit or older persons" - said professor Robert Flisiak in Monday's interview for TVN24.
He added that such plan has been already implemented in the United Kingdom. "They have created a plan of which groups to consider for third doses." He explained that apart of the aforementioned groups, the British also plan to vaccinate people at risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms, as well as medical staff having direct contact with infected patients.
"In the United Kingdom, COVID-19 is no longer causing such high mortality rate and so severe course of illness as it used to in the previous waves" - professor Flisiak said. He argued that although the number of infections in Britain was rising, there were no significant changes in the number of deaths and hospital treatment.
"The British launched vaccinations very early, as the first in Europe, and followed a strategy to vaccinate with at least one jab as many people as possible, as soon as possible. Right now they are number one, at least in Europe, in terms of vaccination level, thanks to which they go through infections more mildly" - the professor said. He stressed that "this is a lesson for us, we should learn from this example". There is still time to follow in Britain's footsteps" - he added.
At the same time he stressed that in terms of COVID-19 vaccinations, Poland was in the European average. "We look a bit worse compared to the EU average," he explained.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, TVN24