Vaccination against the coronavirus: a task in which progress is made, but not as desired | International | News

The effects of COVID-19 persist despite the fact that 33% of the world’s inhabitants are already vaccinated.

The coronavirus pandemic began in the first quarter of 2020 and, despite the appearance of different vaccines, its impact continues.

One of the countries that are experiencing a new wave is Russia, which on Wednesday registered a new record of 984 deaths per death and is close to the barrier of 1,000 deaths a day, according to data published by the operational center to fight the pandemic of the coronavirus and collected by EFE. This new maximum brings the total number of deaths from COVID to 219,329, although official statistics on excess deaths in the same period triple this figure.

In addition, 28,717 new cases were detected in the 85 regions of the country in the last day, 2,493 of which were in asymptomatic people.

According to Russia’s health chief Anna Popova, there is currently an increase in the incidence of coronavirus in 77 Russian regions. While the Minister of Health, Mikhail Murashko, indicated that the number of new cases of coronavirus has increased by 16% only in the last week.

More than 90% of the beds dedicated to COVID-19 patients are already occupied in Russia. 11% of hospitalized patients are in serious condition and almost none of them were vaccinated.

The authorities attribute the high incidence to the delta variant and the low vaccination rate in the country.

So far only 31% of the population has been vaccinated with the full schedule, that is, 45.3 million citizens. Provisions have now been made for compulsory vaccination of certain categories of citizens.

According to Dr. Fernando Espinoza, director of the Research Center of the Universidad Espíritu Santo, this would be the main reason. Also, remember that the whole world has just received a 33% vaccination, that is, 2,600 million of the 7,700 million people in the world.

It also highlights that all approved vaccines that are being used have antibody production surveillance studies that indicate that they do work. An example of this are those used in Ecuador: Pfizer, Sinovac, AstraZeneca and CanSino. Also, that the Russian Sputnik, which was the first announced coronavirus vaccine and is one of the most used – although the World Health Organization (WHO) continues to study to give it its approval – has had good results, according to studies. .

Since the beginning of the pandemic, a total of 7,861,681 infections have been reported in Russia, being the fifth country in the world with the most cases of coronavirus, behind the United States, India, Brazil and the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, 39% of the inhabitants of Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated, although six countries have much lower rates of immunization, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

PAHO Director Carissa Etienne said the region is close to reaching the goal set by the UN and WHO this month to immunize 40% of the world’s population before the end of the year, a goal they have already set. achieved 26 countries in the region. But those most concerned about their low numbers are Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Since the start of the pandemic, more than 91 million people have been infected in America, while more than 2.2 million have lost their lives, PAHO said. The health authorities of several countries remain on alert for the eventual start of a third or fourth wave of the epidemic. However, there are also sectors of the population that still have doubts about vaccines, especially with the appearance of infected vaccinated people.

Dr. Josefina Coloma, a researcher at the University of Berkeley, in California, United States, comments that vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus do not produce sterilizing immunity, as do those of other diseases, for example, polio. That is, a vaccinated person can acquire the virus, but, contrary to what would happen if it were not inoculated, the vaccine reduces the risk of illness, severity, hospitalization and death. It also reduces the ability to transmit the virus.

“On the other hand, the virus continues its course, mutating and adapting to survive the immune response. The antibody response, whether natural, induced by infection or by the vaccine, declines with time, which also results in infections among those vaccinated. Most of these are benign, but in elderly or immunocompromised people it can still result in hospitalization. Furthermore, we know that not all vaccines are the same and several studies already recommend a booster for these populations at 6-8 months, ”explains Coloma, who adds that they will have to learn to live with the virus.

“Vaccines do their job and humans must do ours. Getting vaccinated against flu, wearing a mask in the future and isolating ourselves when we feel we are sick, respiratory etiquette forever! Rapid antigen tests should be more common and at the price of candy, to detect outbreaks early, ”Coloma also points out.

Espinoza comments that it is necessary to continue with the drug surveillance until the end of the year to know how the issue of antibodies against the virus is going, as well as to see the possibility of the third booster dose to specific groups, such as the elderly and immunosuppressed people.

Meanwhile, regarding the economic impact of the pandemic, the director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, said that she continues to consider that global inflation will be “transitory”, but admits that it may be prolonged if access is not accelerated. global vaccines. (I)

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