The scientific researcher and pediatrician, Marta Illueca, referred this Thursday to the vaccination in Panama, the omicron variant and the increase in cases of Covid-19.
He stated that we are seeing a fourth wave that has been triggered by the appearance of this new variant of the coronavirus.
“In Panama we have exceeded half a million cases, but we have maintained a fatality or death rate from Covid at 1.5%, which tells us that the variety of the strain is not changing the fact of having a vulnerable group that we have to worry about. ”, He explained.
He indicated that there are good things in the country, such as the vaccination process that began at the beginning of 2021 and now there are pediatric vaccines, for which he called on the population to sign up to be vaccinated, highlighting that always that a new variant appears there is uncertainty.
Illueca revealed that omicron basically skips, and has the ability to evade the first vaccination schedule which was two doses, but omicron does not do very well with the application of the booster doses.
“One of the challenges in Panama and in the world is that science is not only now the territory of scientists, and there are people who misinterpret statistics and science. We see that when we only count the number of vaccinated and infected, we immediately say that the vaccine is useless, that is false, what we have to see is the percentage ”, he stressed.
He specified that 89% of severe cases and deaths are seen in the unvaccinated, “the vaccine is effective and protective, but we will always have that vulnerable group because their immune system does not work properly.”
