JAKARTA – The government provides third dose of vaccine for health workers, along with the soaring cases of the Delta variant of Covid-19 and the number of health workers who died exposed to Covid even though they had been vaccinated.
Responding to this, UGM Epidemiologist, Bayu Satria Wiratama said, there is no guarantee that the third dose of vaccine for health workers can be free from exposure to the Delta variant of Covid-19. According to him, further research is needed to determine the cause of death for these health workers.
“The evidence is not yet strong that a third dose is necessary especially for the Delta variant. What is more important is to know first what the exact cause of health workers is according to the assumption that many have received vaccinations but are still affected and the mortality rate is still high. Is it really the low effectiveness of the vaccine or is there another cause?,” said Bayu, as quoted from the ugm.ac.id website, Saturday (10/7/2021).
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According to Bayu, there is actually very little evidence showing that the Delta variant causes Covid-19 to be more severe than the previous variant, so it cannot be concluded that this variant is more virulent. However, regarding the more contagious Delta variant, the evidence is stronger.
“It’s more contagious which is why there are more severe cases when the Delta variant appears. Because the Delta variant causes more people to get sick and this will be directly proportional to the increase in people with moderate to severe symptoms. So, not because of the variant itself directly,” he added.
The number of cases of death due to positive Covid-19 has also increased the number of patients requiring treatment, even though hospital capacity cannot increase quickly. As a result, many patients do not receive treatment at a referral hospital.
“This condition causes the death rate to increase,” he explained.
Regarding data from the Ministry of Health, which states that around 90 percent of Covid-19 deaths occur in people who have not been vaccinated, Bayu said this figure is too optimistic because the actual figure is still below that.
“However, for me it is still good enough to reduce fatalities in Covid-19,” he said.
