Professor of the Medical School and Vice Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athanasios Tsakris, refers to the importance of the third dose of the vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-2 with its variants / mutations has come and will remain, passing at some point from the pandemic situation to an epidemic form.
At the moment, vaccination is proving to be our most effective shield against this virus that never ceases to amaze us, as its high circulation in the community creates fertile ground for new mutations, which make pandemic management difficult.
But vaccination does not mean absolute protection. Due to some new, more contagious variants that may escape some of our immune response, but also due to the fact that immunity to coronaviruses in general (through vaccine or disease) weakens relatively quickly, the virus can still be infected. and people who have become ill or vaccinated.
We already see it happening in our social environment in many cases.
Vaccine protection shield
But again, we are not unarmed. Against such a contagious variant as Delta, the third dose of the vaccine causes a significant increase in antibodies to those administered and at the same time prevents to a much greater extent the possibility of infection after exposure to the virus, and serious illness.
The data from Israel, where the administration of the booster dose, from the age of sixteen, is proceeding at a very fast pace (about four million citizens have already been vaccinated) come to confirm it without any doubt.
People who have taken the third dose are, depending on their age group, 8 to 10 times less likely to get sick than those who have
take both doses and 20 to 25 times less likely than the unvaccinated.
The percentages are similar for the chances of a serious illness.
The third dose is therefore necessary both for our individual protection and for the reduction of the spread of the virus in the community. It can be administered before six months have elapsed since the second dose and those who have this possibility through the system, let them not hesitate to do so.
in.gr