The immunization of children and the benefits of the booster doses on individuals with chronic diseases marked the last day of the CoronaVac Symposium, an international event organized by the Butantan Institute and Sinovac. Researchers from China, Chile and Brazil brought the most recent results about the vaccination realized with the vaccine made of inactivated viruses.
The pharmacovigilance manager of Sinovac, Jiayi Wang, reinforced the guarantee of effectiveness from the CoronaVac for use in the pediatric public. “The vaccine presented a good safety profile for the population above 3 years of age”, she said, presenting the data from the clinical trial of phases 1 and 2 realized in China with children and teenagers. According to the researcher, only mild adverse effects were verified.
In Chile, children from 6 to 11 years of age began to be vaccinated in September and the vaccine was also authorized for the use of the age group above 3 years of age on the last 26th of November. In the evaluation of the researcher and professor of the Pontifical Catholical University from Chile, Susan M. Bueno, the preliminary data of the clinical trials on phase 3 that are still occuring on the country presented a good immunological response on children over 3 years of age. The studies revealed that children produce more antibodies and have less adverse reactions than the adults.
The evaluations are part of the vast research realized in partnership with institutions from China, Quenia, Malaysia, Philippines and South Africa, from which 14 thousand volunteers took part of them. “Vaccinated children that are six years of age or more did not have severe adverse events, which is something very positive”, informed Susan.
The children and teenagers were divided into two groups to evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of the vaccine in comparison with the placebo, the biggest part of them just presented a mild pain and redness in the area of the vaccination, with rare cases of cough, fever and nausea. The researcher guaranteed that CoronaVac, up to this date, is the vaccine that brings a minor risk and a bigger protection to the children. “This population will be more and more susceptible, while the adults already have the vaccine”, she punctuated. “It is important to consider and protect with vaccines of inactivated viruses since it's safer than the other vaccines.”
Reinforcement for individuals with comorbidities
The specialists also emphasized during the symposium the importance of maintaining the researches with individuals that have comorbidities. The reaction of the protection and defense system of the organism among the vaccinated immunosuppressed individuals and subpopulations with a higher difficulty to produce antibodies were the highlights of the last day of the event.
The results of a research about the protection of CoronaVac on immunosuppressed individuals was presented by the clinical director from the Clinic Hospital of the School Medicine from the University of São Paulo (HCFMUSP), Eloisa Bonfá. “The recommendation from our medical society is to discontinue the medication [on immunosuppressed individuals] during the week of vaccination. The vaccination has been well-successful even with the booster dose. We could observe that the immunogenicity of the patients got better”, she said.
At the end of the day, the researcher Zijie Zhang, from the Biology System Group at the State Lab of Conservation and Utilization of Bioresources from the Yunnan University, in China, presented data about the safety of CoronaVac on immunosuppressed patients and on those with chronic disease and the importance of the third dose, specially for those that had a higher difficult to respond to the primary vaccination. “The third dose is efficient and the solution to the non-responders, besides the lower level in comparison to the general population”, said the researcher.
The researcher Hongjie Yu, professor of the Health Public School from the Fudan University in China, spoke about the immunogenicity of the CoronaVac among the eldelry, about the durability of the immunity after the primary vaccination and the effects on the application of a third dose. The volunteers that received an additional dose of the vaccine eight months after the second dose increased seven times the level of the neutralizing antibodies, without any adversities.
The mediators of the discussions that happened during the third day of the encounter were the professor of Biochemical and Molecular Biology from the Barcelona University, Rafael Franco, and the professor of clinical medicine at the University of São Paulo, Paulo Andrade Lotufo. During the afternoon was also realized a discussion table with specialist commenting the main topics presented at the scientific sessions. “We don’t have vaccines of inactivated viruses in Europe, but it is something that we need. No one is worrying about it because of non-scientific reasons”, said the professor Rafael Franco.
Closure
Brazilian researchers and from other five countries made history when gathered at the CoronaVac Symposium to present the main conclusions obtained until this moment about the vaccine. The data were provided not just to the scientific community, but to the whole population during the international online event. “The Symposium is an important moment in history. CoronaVac was the pioneer vaccine and today is the main vaccine of the world”, affirmed Lotufo. “We are fighting against the negationists and favoring science”, he emphasized.
The Chilean researcher Susan Bueno highlighted that the Symposium must be used as a transparency pattern to the scientific community for presenting the collected information regarding the safety and effectiveness of the immunization against coronavirus. “This message must be disseminated to encourage vaccination in the whole world and the end of the pandemics”, she said.
The CoronaVac Symposium was held during 7th, 8th and 9th of December.
