Vaccini, Gimbe: “Over 3 million over 50s without any coverage”. This was revealed by the Gimbe Foundation, in its usual weekly monitoring.
As of September 15, 91.849.241 doses of vaccines have been delivered: with 3,7 million doses in the last week, mRNA vaccine stocks exceed 10 million. As of the same date, 74,1% of the population (n. 43.924.031) has received at least one dose of vaccine (+552.102 compared to the previous week) and 68% (n. 40.295.980) has completed the vaccination cycle (+1.223.873).
The number of administrations has decreased in the last week (n. 1.720.055), with a 7-day moving average of 234.183 administrations/day. “Despite the considerable availability of doses – comments Cartabellotta – the number of first administrations, after three weeks of stability around 720-750 thousand, in the last week has dropped to 525 thousand. While waiting to know the effects of the extension of the green pass obligation, it is clear that the current campaign strategies are unable to counteract the hesitation of the still unvaccinated population”.
As for the coverage of over 50s, 88,9% of the population has received at least the first dose of vaccine, (+0,5% compared to the previous week) with clear regional differences. It goes from 93,3% in Puglia to 83% in Calabria.
In detail:
Over 80: of the over 4,4 million, 4.205.980 (93,9%) have completed the vaccination cycle and 102.620 (2,3%) have received only the first dose.
70-79 age group years: of the over 5,9 million, 5.353.137 (89,7%) have completed the vaccination cycle and 133.144 (2,2%) have received only the first dose.
60-69 age group years: of the over 7,3 million, 6.376.274 (85,7%) have completed the vaccination cycle and 219.502 (2,9%) have received only the first dose.
50-59 age group years: of the over 9,4 million, 7.491.811 (79,1%) have completed the vaccination cycle and 440.596 (4,7%) have received only the first dose.
A total of 3,9 million over 50s (14,4%) have not yet completed the vaccination cycle, with significant regional differences (from 17% in Calabria to 6,7% in Puglia): of these, 3,03 million have not yet received even one dose.
In the face of a substantial flattening of vaccination trends in this age group, the curves of the under 50s continue to rise, in particular the 12-19 and 20-29 age groups which have surpassed the 30-39 and 40-49 age groups. In particular, Gimbe underlines, with schools already restarted, it is worrying that in the 12-19 age group, despite the constant increase in coverage, 1,53 million children (33,7%) have not received even one dose of vaccine, with significant regional differences.
The vaccine's efficacy, Gimbe adds, from April to today has been confirmed as stable and very high in reducing deaths (96,3%) and severe forms of the disease requiring hospitalization in the medical area (93,4%) and intensive care (95,7%). Regarding SARS-CoV-2 diagnoses, however, the efficacy has decreased from 88,5% (period April 4-July 11) to 77,3% (period April 4-September 5), inversely proportional to age: in fact, in the 12-39 age group the efficacy has dropped to 67,2% in recent weeks, and now after a stabilization it seems to be rising again.
"This confirms – explains Cartabellotta – that during the summer period, the increase in social contacts and the lesser attention to individual behaviors, fundamental for preventing contagion even in vaccinated people, must have had an influence among the youngest“. In subjects vaccinated with a full cycle, compared to unvaccinated subjects, there is a clear drop in the incidence of diagnoses and especially of severe disease leading to hospitalization, admission to intensive care or death: in the various age groups, diagnoses of SARS-CoV-2 are reduced by 77,8-80,7%, ordinary hospitalizations by 88,8-95,6%, those in intensive care by 92,5-97,4% and deaths by 93,4-100%.
"The progressive increase in vaccination coverage and adherence to individual behaviors – concludes Cartabellotta – have helped contain the fourth wave and new cases and hospitalizations have finally started to decline. However, with autumn upon us, the reopening of schools and the 9,4 million people, in addition to those under 12, who have not yet received even one dose of vaccine, there is a risk of a resumption of the circulation of the virus and an increase in hospitalizations with consequent limitations in the care of non-COVID-19 patients. In this context, the stance taken by public figures, including doctors and politicians, who, by subverting the methodology of scientific research, fuel misinformation, putting people's health at risk, is unacceptable. Especially those who are undecided, who refuse effective and safe vaccines, trusting in unauthorized home therapy protocols or even in harmful and contraindicated drugs".
Article published on 16 September 2021 - 11:13
