The alert message of a former WHO director on vaccines and Kraken

The public health expert rafael bengoa has asked a “stricter” control of travelers from China ante the forecast of a “brutal” number of infections due to the celebration of the Chinese New Year, which takes place from next January 22 and in which millions of trips are planned. However, he has sent a message of reassurance by assuring that they are “omicron sublinages”, which are “very infectious, but just as not severe as in our context”.

Bengoa has also recommended the administration of a fourth dose of the vaccine to people over 50 years of age and keeping the mask in closed places, such as public transport, for at least three or four months.

In statements to Europa Press, the also former Basque Health Minister has criticized that the Asian giant, “after a thousand days of confinement”, has decided to “release” the zero covid policy “without having prepared the exit”, in contrast to other countries like New Zealand or Australia that, before “breaking the dam” of the zero covid policy, what they did was “vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate, and also ensure that they have the infrastructure of the health system ready in case a very strong wave came great”.

However, he believes that, for now, “we have to stay calm”, because what is happening in China, although the number of people being infected is multiplying by thousands, they are only “omicron sublinings”, which are ” very infectious, but just as not severe as in our context”.

In his opinion, in the rest of the Earth “we will become very vulnerable if another variant appears, and that variant, which has not yet appeared and is possible to appear, because there are really thousands of people getting infected.” “If this new variant appears, then we will be more vulnerable, and therefore we have to prepare ourselves for that eventuality,” he warned.

What matters now, he continued, is that the Chinese government, which “has been controlling the people rather than controlling an infection”, puts “the batteries” to stop this “kind of chaos that has been created by political decisions “.

FOURTH DOSE AND MASKS

Rafael Bengoa has recommended the administration of the fourth dose of the vaccine, because after three or four months of the administration of the third dose, most people, especially those over 50 years of age, have gradually reduced their immunity.

“Every time you get vaccinated, you’re resetting your immune system to wake it up again. You’re educating it, and every time you manage to do that you’re protecting yourself again, and why not protect yourself with something that’s working so spectacularly well for you? This third winter that we still have the covid with us? I think that next year it will be possible to see, depending on how endemic and seasonal the covid is, when it is necessary to get vaccinated. Perhaps only once a year,” he added.

Finally, he has shown himself to be in favor of hima mandatory mask in crowded and closed places. According to her, Spain has done “many things well, but not in reinforcing ventilation in buildings, workplaces or schools.”

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“There has not been an economic impulse as is necessary. That is the impulse that must be done from now on, because there will be more viruses and more pandemics in the future, and therefore what we have to do now is prepare the ventilation of all our homes, workplaces and schools to ensure that the next virus, which is probably also from aerosols, does not impact us as much,” he specified.

For this reason, he has pointed out that as long as we do not “have” these ventilation systems, it is convenient to wear a mask “for another three months” on planes or public transport, because also “it has been proven that it is saving many lives.”