Dr. Karagiannis: It is good that we included the Turkish Cypriots in the quantity of vaccines we requested from the EU

Encouraging the fact that the European Union wants to proceed collectively to order the vaccine against coronavirus, in his intervention on the ANT1 show "Mera Mesimeri", Professor of Molecular Virology at the University of Nicosia, Dr. Petros Karagiannis.

It seems that the European Union is convinced that at the moment securing a quantity of vaccines from the very first doses is the best option at the same time that Cyprus has already submitted its request for the need for 1.2 million vaccines.

Regarding the inclusion of Turkish Cypriots in the amount of vaccines requested by the Ministry of Health, Dr. Karagiannis said that it is a good move since when Cyprus joined the EU it did so as the whole territory of the Republic of Cyprus and not just the free part.

"Therefore, for political reasons, it is good to include the Turkish Cypriots, despite the fact that they may not accept this gesture," he said on his camera. ANT1

He went on to explain that the quantity ordered by Cyprus was quite satisfactory since only 10% of those vaccinated by the Oxford University study needed a second dose to develop antibodies.

Then, the Professor clarified that he does not focus only on the studies of this particular vaccine, he just can not proceed to some comparison, in order to decide which is the best, since the rest have not yet published their data.

"The approaches are such that they will probably have the same effectiveness for this and the European Union has taken care to secure some doses, at least from the first vaccine," said Dr. Karagiannis.

Regarding the Russian vaccine, the Professor clarified that so far no detailed, scientific study has been published in an official journal, nor has it been commented on by experts in the field so that there can be possible improvements, so he can not make any compare and draw specific conclusions.

He added that according to the announcement of the company, it has just received the results of the 3rd phase, since studies are currently being carried out in England, Brazil and South Africa, something that is expected to happen at the end of August, then it will submit the dossier to the regulatory authorities for authorization.

Some quantities will then be available in the UK (which is expected to take place in early November), and after 2 to 3 weeks it is expected to be distributed to the rest of the world. Because, always according to the words of Dr. Karagiannis, we do not yet know exactly how these few doses of the vaccine will be distributed and based on his own calculations, he believes that we will have it in our hands at the beginning of 2021.