Insiders call it a "booster" dose, i.e. a "booster" dose after completion of the primary vaccination course, at least six months after the last injection. Commonly it would be the third dose of the anti-Covid vaccine, the one that American President Joe Biden did just yesterday, giving news on social channels: now also in Italy, starting from October, some categories will follow the example of the over eighty-year-old boss of the White House. This was decided by a circular from the Ministry of Health, identifying the categories involved, while on the hypothesis of a third dose for the entire population, the progress of the epidemic will be evaluated: in the meantime, the green light is there for over 80, staff and guests of RSA and health care from 60 years, with pathologies or with a high level of exposure to infection.
The additional protection, for which starting from the month of October it will be possible to use any of the two mRNA vaccines authorized in Italy (Pfizer and Moderna), is envisaged in order to "maintain or restore an adequate level of immune response”, writes the ministry, and concerns one total potential audience of about 6 million people. The booster dose should be administered after at least 6 months since the last inoculation. In the circular, signed by the Director of Prevention Gianni Rezza, all the professional categories included in this first phase are better specified. They are "the operators of the health professions and operators of health interest who carry out their activities in health, social health and social welfare structures, public and private, in pharmacies, parapharmacies and professional studios", starting from subjects aged 60 or over at risk.
“The health workers are our front line, everyone must be protected, from the hospital ward to the general practitioner. They will all be placed in further security,” he said the commissioner for the Covid emergency, General Francesco Figliuolo. “Those who are older will have priority, for the rest we will see what our scientists will say, we will also gradually wait for the data from foreign countries”. Figliuolo then provided the numbers of the next audiences who will start with the third dose: “It is an audience of over 80s and RSAs of about 4 and a half million people to which are added the health professionals who are around 1 million and 900 thousand ”. The new audience adds to the approx three million immunocompromised patients who started undergoing the "additional" dose (to achieve an adequate level of immune response) from 20 September.
