ROME (AP) – Italy’s main teachers’ union is considering plans for educators under the age of 55 to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, rather than blows, believes it offers better protection, evidence that lobby groups are fighting to get specific photos like the virus and its variants spread throughout Europe.
The CISL School Union said in a statement on Monday that it wanted a meeting with the Italian government’s scientific committee. She complained that she was not consulted about the decision to start vaccinating teachers ahead of time, with some of the first 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca arriving over the weekend.
The Italian government relaunched its vaccination plans last week after Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna cut vaccine deliveries and the Italian pharmaceutical agency granted “preferential use” for AstraZeneca photos for people aged 18 to 55. over 80 years while designating AstraZeneca jabs for younger and riskier workers.
Intermediate analysis in late human studies showed that AstraZeneca was 70.4% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 after two doses. Pfizer and Moderna reported preliminary results from late-stage studies showing that their vaccines were almost 95% effective.
Over the weekend, South Africa suspended plans to inoculate front-line health workers with AstraZeneca after a small clinical study suggested that it is not effective in preventing mild to moderate diseases of the dominant variant in the country.
So far, Italy has identified a person who gave positive results with the South African variant that arrived on a flight from the mainland, although it had several cases of variants identified in the United Kingdom and Brazil. But on Monday, the Austrian government issued a warning against moving to its province of Tyrol, which borders northern Italy, after 293 infections of the variant identified in South Africa were confirmed there.
Northern Italy has been the most affected part of the country since the first locally transmitted case was confirmed on February 21 in Lombardy and became the only epicenter of Europe. While national infections have remained stable for several weeks – about 8,000 new confirmed cases were reported on Monday and 307 new deaths – northern regions continue to see the highest number of infections and deaths. With over 90,000 deaths, Italy has the second largest confirmed number of COVID-19 deaths in Europe, after the United Kingdom.
The union said schoolchildren were wondering whether to accept the AstraZeneca vaccine, given “lower vaccination coverage compared to the more effective Pfizer and Moderna vaccines”.
The Tsar with viruses in Italy, Domenico Arcuri, defended the decision to target AstraZeneca vaccines to younger workers, saying that the double goal of Italy’s campaign is to reduce overall mortality among the elderly who are most at risk of fatal complications and reduce the spread of the virus among younger people.
“We have a new weapon that allows us to amplify vaccination categories,” Arcuri told reporters on Friday.
Initially, Italy’s national vaccination plan gives priority to health workers and nursing home residents the first doses of vaccines to arrive, followed by people over the age of 80.
But the new designation of “preferential use” for AstraZeneca shootings means a parallel campaign begins this week for teachers under 55, law enforcement personnel, the armed forces, prisoners and prison officials, as well as essential workers and community residents.
To date, Italy has administered over 2.5 million doses. On Monday, in Rome, the first doses for people over the age of 80 who do not live in nursing homes began in local hospitals.
“I have seven grandchildren waiting for a hug,” said a satisfied Abramo Abrusca when he was shot with Pfizer.