Among the 18 million French people affected as of September by a third booster dose, many will be worried about the potential mixture of their vaccines and messenger RNA technology. Why Doctor takes stock of the available data.
- From September, those over 65 and those with comorbidity will be able to receive a third dose of the anti-Covid vaccine.
- It is intended to compensate for the gradual decrease in the effectiveness of these serums against Covid-19.
While the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) has come out in favor of a third dose of anti-coronavirus vaccine for the over 65s and the most fragile, the experts have also announced that in the syringes will only be mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna), regardless of the products used for the doses already injected previously.
More efficiency, less side effects
For those who are concerned, remember that two studies published in Nature demonstrated that the mixture of two vaccines is effective and safe. They even revealed that the combination of AstraZeneca and Pfizer generates significantly higher immune protection than with the same two doses, and that this effectiveness also applies to the different variants. In both trials, side effects were also generally attenuated when mixing the vaccines.
In addition, the Academies of Medicine, Pharmacy and Science have published a very reassuring press release on messenger RNA technology, in particular for “denounce the false information circulating in part of public opinion concerning these vaccines”.
The reassuring Academies on mRNA
The three institutions point out in particular that:
– scientists and industrialists have been developing and improving the technology of messenger RNA platforms for more than thirty years, which has proven to be very effective for vaccination against SARS-CoV2. Messenger RNA vaccines induce protection of more than 90% against symptomatic forms of Covid-19 and almost total against severe forms;
– these vaccines are remarkably safe; they have been the subject of pharmaceutical development and clinical trials carried out according to good practices for their marketing and have then been validated in emergency procedures in the face of the pandemic by health authorities in Europe and in the USA ;
– after the injection of billions of doses, the efficacy of the vaccine and its safety have been largely confirmed by all the epidemiological studies in real life and by pharmacovigilance;
– the vaccine messenger RNA is rapidly degraded after its translation into vaccine protein and, no more than physiological RNAs, does not integrate into the human genome.
“Messenger RNA vaccines have the advantage that they can be produced quickly in large quantities and could be easily modified, if necessary, in the face of possible escape mutations carried by new variants”, conclude the scientists.
.
