Covid-10: Chile defends third vaccine dose despite W.H.O. scientists’ recommendations

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Chile’s Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, on Tuesday (14) defended the need for a third dose against Covid-19 that the country applies, just a day after a study, which counted with the participation of WHO scientists, indicated that it is not “appropriate”.

“It can be seen as a difference in the right to health that some countries already put a booster dose, but we believe that we have to protect our elderly and chronically ill,” Paris said in a virtual press conference with foreign correspondents.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Chile 

According to the minister, a study carried out in Chile, which included more than 570 volunteers, showed that with vaccines from Sinovac, Pfizer or AstraZeneca, there is a “very significant” drop in antibodies 6 months after the second dose is administered.

However, international research published on Monday in the journal “The Lancet” with the collaboration of W.H.O. scientists, points out that booster doses are not “appropriate”.

One of the authors, Ana María Henao-Restrepo, stated that “there is no evidence that there is a substantial decline in protection” against Covid-19 and that, given the limited supply, more lives can be saved “if the doses are offered to people at risk of getting sick and who have not yet been vaccinated.”

In the same vein, W.H.O. called in early August for a moratorium on administering third doses to ensure vaccination in low-income countries and reach the target of 10% of the world’s population vaccinated.

Chile has deployed one of the fastest immunization strategies globally and since last August has administered more than 2.3 million booster doses to the over-55s and chronically ill.

13.2 million of the 19 million inhabitants have completed their schedule in the country, and 1.4 million children have received at least one dose of Sinovac or Pfizer.

REOPENING OF BORDERS

With more than 1.64 million infections and 37,253 total deaths, Chile has been at its best pandemic moment for a month now, with a PCR positivity rate of less than 1% and the lowest number of new infections since March 2020.

In the last 24 hours, no deaths were recorded for the first time since the health crisis, and the number of infections was 297.

If this epidemiological situation is maintained, the Minister indicated, from October onwards, there will be changes regarding the opening of borders, which have been closed to tourists since last April for fear of the Delta variant, of which a thousand cases have been confirmed.

“The changes have to do with incorporating two more airports and some land crossings for the tourist industry that is asking for our help”, he added.

Along the same lines, the country must decide whether to lift the state of emergency due to catastrophe next month, implying leaving behind the curfew that is now in force from 12 midnight throughout the country.