Home » Health » Doctor Herman Berkovits, asked when the pandemic ends: I’m afraid / VIDEO

Doctor Herman Berkovits, asked when the pandemic ends: I’m afraid / VIDEO

Doctor Herman Berkovits was asked on DCNewsTV when he estimates that the pandemic will end.

“Vaccines can have the disease, but not in a serious form. I don’t understand people who don’t go for vaccinations. Many times, I see fake news, things that make no sense. It’s like you’re waiting for the disease … “, said doctor Herman Berkovits in an interview given to DCNews and DCNewsTV.

Asked when he estimated the pandemic would end, Herman Berkovits gave the following answer: “The pandemic will end at once, as all pandemics have ended. But I’m afraid of the variations that occur due to mutations. It appeared (no Omicron) in South Africa, which actually had millions of doses of Pfizer vaccine, but people did not go to get vaccinated! ”

DCNews interview with doctor Herman Berkovits:

SEE ALSO: Ro-Vaccination, answers to questions about the Omicron variant

The Vaccination page provides answers to a number of questions about the Omicron variant.

Why does the virus accumulate mutations?

During the infection, the virus must make billions and billions of copies of its genetic code. Sometimes errors occur in the replication process and some “letters” are “copied” incorrectly. SARS-CoV-2 has mechanisms to correct most copying errors, but even these mechanisms cannot work perfectly and some mutations still escape. Most mutations have a minor or non-existent effect on the biology of the virus and are of only epidemiological interest (the mutation footprint allows tracking the circulation of the virus in the population). But if these random mutations give the virus an advantage (eg higher transmissibility, the ability to “bypass” some of the body’s protective mechanisms) then they are selected and spread further.
These are classic evolutionary principles, the survival of the most adapted to the environmental conditions of a given time, but which are now occurring with dizzying speed due to the large number of cases of infection that gives the virus multiple chances to adapt.

Is the Omicron variant more aggressive?

It is difficult to say at this time whether the Omicron variant produces milder or more severe forms of COVID-19 due to the small number of cases recorded and the short time since it was discovered. From infection to the development of a severe form of the disease generally lasts more than a week and most of the cases identified so far are in young people at lower risk of severe COVID-19. More data are likely to be available in the near future, but all SARS-CoV-2 variants to date have been associated with a significant risk of severe disease progression. The precautionary approach at the moment would be not to consider that the infection with the Omicron variant would evolve differently.

Is the Omicrom version more transmissible?

Again, it is too early to say in the absence of other data. The Omicron variant became indeed dominant in a very short time from the documentation of the first sequences, but it did so against the background of a very small number of infections with other variants during the period when it was discovered. We will have to see how the number of cases of Omicron infection will evolve in areas with an increased incidence of other viral variants (eg Delta).

Does it still make sense to get vaccinated?

Current vaccines have been shown to be effective against all viral variants that have circulated so far, especially against the severe evolution of COVID-19, hospitalization and death. It is unlikely that the situation will be completely different in the case of the Omicron variant and go back to the pandemic period when vaccines were not available. Also, at the moment in Europe and in most of the world the dominant variant is Delta, against which we already know that current vaccines protect. If Omicron, or any other variant that may be dominant in the future, proves to be able to bypass the immune response acquired by vaccination long enough, current vaccines can be changed quickly. We must not see this as exceptional. After all, flu vaccines are adapted for each season to the dominant viral strains.

The RoVaccination material was made by Cătălin Țucureanu, scientific researcher in immunology and vaccinology at the National Institute for Medical-Military Research-Development “Cantacuzino”.

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