The head of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Health, christian garciaaddressed the measure of integrating a fifth dose as a way to beat the rise in Covid-19 cases in our country.
It should be noted that the holder of the portfolio, Maria Begona Yarzaspecified that “it would not make sense” a new vaccine against the pandemic.
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Before these words, García indicated in 24 hours that “what has been shown is that the protection of successive reinforcements remains at fairly good levels of protection for serious diseases. Therefore, so far what is seen is that in the short term a fifth dose, for now , and in the National Commission for Response to the Pandemic, it is proposed that it not be incorporated as a measure for the entire population immediately.
“If tomorrow we have some new vaccines and we need to vaccinate, we will probably have to do it with a vaccine more similar to the variants that are circulating at that time and not so similar to the original, which is from the year 2020” , he complemented.
rise in cases
Referring to the rise in Covid-19 cases that are currently in our country, the head of Epidemiology explained that “the new subvariants can play a very important role in this.”
“Today we have more than four million people who have already recovered from a first infection, therefore there is a very large number of people who can also be reinfected,” he added.
When speaking about the reinfected patients, García maintained that “what we have detected, in general terms, is that they have occurred in less serious (cases). 84% of these cases have been asymptomatic or with very few symptoms.”
In this context, he stressed that “vaccination protects us a lot against serious cases such as deaths, serious illnesses for admission to the ICU or hospitalization, but it is not as efficient in reducing the possibility of contagion. Therefore, it is possible that a vaccinated person get infected, and even have a reinfection, but you’re going to be protected in general terms.
Finally, he pointed out that “the body generates antibodies against a virus and takes certain parts of the virus to recognize it. When viruses mutate, they change certain parts. Many times, not all of them, but several of them and that makes it less recognizable. For this reason, he warned that “it is very important to be aware of the uncertainty generated by these new variants.”
