“I will not continue with the vaccine, I already had two. I think I got COVID and I was cured”, says Estrella Alvarado, a 55-year-old domestic worker who lives in the Juan Montalvo sector, in the north of Guayaquil.
“I’m scared of it, an acquaintance had a heart attack as soon as she took the third (dose)”, he refers after going through one of the vaccination points installed in the City Mall shopping center, which is generally empty.
The Vaccination rate to protect against COVID-19 decreases in Ecuador since it peaked, even though immunization drastically reduced the number of hospitalizations and deaths from this diseasethe specialists and the official figures agree.
“I carry my sorrow in silence”, says a man who buried his parents and brother due to COVID-19 with the risk of also dying since he is obese
During in 2021 there were 10,552 deaths from COVID-19, according to the Ministry of Public Health (MSP). Only Between epidemiological weeks 1 and 42 of that year, 10,129 had already died. people.
In the same period of 2022 (between January and October 22) died, instead, 1,554 people (confirmed and probable cases), six times less compared to the same period last year.
However, there is a reluctance to get vaccinated, which is evident with the first booster, as the MSP calls the third dose that must be given six months after people are immunized with the second.
The On February 18 of this year, the maximum daily number of doses applied was reached, at the moment, with 105,436 throughout the country of this first reinforcement..
Since then, there are days like last October 10 when barely 500 people were immunized. Last October 27, 6,890 did so.
And it is not because a high percentage of coverage was reached, since 7.3 million had the third dose (first booster). The number represents the 53.5% of the target population, which is the group aged 12 and over, estimated at 13.7 millionaccording to the MSP.
The lack of interest in getting vaccinated occurs in the context of governments relaxing the measures and ending the pandemic, as announced at the time by the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, in an interview on October 3.
Specialists agree that the entire vaccination process helped reduce hospitalization and mortality from COVID-19, but warn that immunization should continue with boosters because after six months the protection of each dose decreases.
And that the messages of ending the pandemic do not help to promote a scenario of greater vaccination.
The microbiologist Patricio Rojas, a researcher at the Institute of Microbiology of the San Francisco de Quito University, indicates that governments do not quite understand what are the measures that should be maintained and promoted all the time to avoid the risk of infection. “There is an important effort for vaccination, which is good, but it should continue to be maintained, not only for the fact of administering the vaccines we have, but also researching and developing new ones such as nasal infections to stop infections because the ones available are good for reduce complications and deaths, but they are less effective in stopping infections, which is a serious problem”.
Immunity drops and may be less than 30% after six months of dose placement, says pulmonologist Iván Chérrez, so it must be reinforced with the third and fourth dose. “That thing that he already hit me and I was left with defenses has unfortunately not been fulfilled.”
Although there is a decrease the number of deaths this year would place COVID-19 in the thirteenth position on the list of the main causes of death. He would occupy that position taking into account the number of deaths at the moment, but the year is not over yet.
There has been a drastic reduction in the number of deaths since the end of last August, a period until now in which one digit per week of deaths has been registered.
This positive consequence is related to the high percentage of coverage achieved in the complete vaccination scheme, which includes those who received at least two doses of the required vaccines and the only one in the case of Cansino.
They are 14’162,725 doses with a coverage of 84.5% of the target population projectionwhich are those who are 3 years old and over.
The bottleneck is in the first and second reinforcement. The coverage of the latter is 16.4% of the target population (those over 12 years old), as of last October 27.
Chérrez affirms that people are in a state of fatigue due to the obligation to vaccinate and have the perception that the pandemic is over, that there are no more deaths, so precautionary measures can be relaxed.
“There are reasons to worry because it is a new disease, so the variants will follow and from these the subvariants, which we will only see how they are shared when they infect a large number of the population.”
When the omicron variant of the coronavirus became prevalent with its b1, b2, b4 and b5 variants, it could be observed that it had different symptoms, but due to vaccination those infected were not hospitalized, many fewer died and the risk of prolonged COVID was reduced. “There we learned that those who had not completed the vaccination had a hard time and we understood that the virus could be a little milder in those immunized. Last December it was on the news that it behaved like the flu, but there were many infected ”.
This scenario can be repeated after this upcoming All Souls Day holiday and the independence of Cuenca and with greater movement between Europe, the United States and Ecuador due to the migrant population that arrives for the Christmas and New Year festivities.
Already the subvariants of omicron bq.1 and bq.1.1 circulate in the most developed countries, strains that are even more agile to evade the antibodies of the immune system, that is, they generate a higher level of contagion. “In a month they have gone from representing 1% to 10% of those infected in the US.”
The vaccination in that country evolved and now includes the bivalent, a new formulation of the original that acts against omicron ba.4 and ba.5.
But the global consensus is that the original vaccines, available in Ecuador, will continue to protect against severe condition and hospitalization. Hence the importance of maintaining reinforcements.
“The rest of the world tells us what is going to happen in this pandemic. In Germany they want to return to the restrictions, certain Chinese cities are in confinement and in the US infections have increased terribly, so in Ecuador the same thing could happen”, warns Chérrez.
The possibility of reinfection is high with these new, more contagious variants. An example of this is that there is no reduction in cases.
From epidemiological week 1 to 42 of 2021, 348,457 confirmed cases were reported, while in the same period of 2022 there are already 392,937.
“The vaccines that we have in the country (reinforcements) protect us from hospitalization and death by almost 90%, including the new variants, and from less than 50% of becoming infected, so we must avoid with the usual measures, wearing a mask, avoiding crowds.
A third of those infected may have what is called prolonged COVID with symptoms such as muscle pain for up to two years from infection. So is fatigue, increased heart rate, and blackouts, even among the very young.
“People are already tired of the measures, but the upcoming holidays can generate a potential spread. The worst thing is that there is a low vaccination rate, people no longer want to get vaccinated, they perceive it as not necessary because they see that it is just a flu and nothing will happen, but even in mild cases this prolonged COVID can occur, so that the vaccination schedule must be completed to avoid these complications and continue with the measures to avoid contagion,” Chérrez says.
What remains to avoid contagion is the use of non-pharmacological measures, says Rojas, such as the proper use of masks, the type that should be used, and implementing other actions, such as promoting improved ventilation in closed places with mechanical systems. “There are air filtration mechanisms to complement the ventilation. The use of type C ultraviolet radiation is discussed, which allows sterilization for this and other viruses that are transmitted through the respiratory tract.. It seems that now governments look the other way and think that it is over, but in reality it is not so. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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