In the Covid-19 pandemic, new waves of coronavirus “variants of concern” are currently observed in many countries and vaccination is one cornerstone of overcoming the pandemic. While many countries have chosen an “elderly first, one dosage fits all” approach to vaccination, Swiss scientists have explored the impact of accelerated vaccination strategies on case load and deaths by applying the highly active mRNA vaccines in a personalised fashion.
Younger persons, through more frequent social activities, contribute largely to driving a pandemic wave, but they also show a stronger immune response to vaccination and have a low risk of death. This raises the possibility that using a lower vaccine dose in the younger may allow vaccinating a much larger number of people rapidly.
A computer modelling study from the University Hospital of Basel and CLINAM Foundation, Switzerland, incorporated the coronavirus infection wave, a limited vaccine supply, age-dependent differences in social interaction, response to vaccination and disease risk, to predict evolution of waves of coronavirus infections and resulting deaths, as published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
“If a personalised, age-matched vaccination dose is used instead of the vaccination strategy currently used in most countries, these data promise a significant shortening of the wave of infections and a marked reduction in deaths and infection counts," says Prof. Patrick Hunziker from the University Hospital Basel, the lead author of this study.
Such a strategy can be immediately put into practice if backed by the regulatory body of a country and may be of particular value in countries that were not yet able to vaccinate a large proportion of their population because of limitations in vaccine availability or economic constraints.
