There is a percentage of people, around 5-10%, depending on the vaccine against the disease COVID-19, who will not respond to it and may end up, if they have underlying diseases, said in KYPE the member of the Advisory Scientific Committee, Professor of Microbiology / Molecular Virology of the Medical School of the University of Nicosia Dr. Petros Karagiannis, when asked about the fact that made both doses of vaccine against the disease COVID-19 they finally died.
Mr. Karagiannis, also referring to the increase in the number of patients receiving treatment, also said that it is a worrying, but expected increase in the number of patients treated with COVID-19, which yesterday reached 225.
He noted that people who do not respond to the vaccine are more likely to get sick if they are exposed to the virus and some to have more severe symptoms. "Due to the fact that these people also have underlying diseases, their condition can be aggravated even more and that is why in the end they end up. "They are elderly people with underlying diseases, who, although they took both doses, may not have responded and may not have developed antibodies," he said. He added that this depends on each organization.
He said that for example the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine is 94-95%. "So he has a 5% who will not respond. For the AstraZeneca vaccine, this percentage is around 10-12% ", he noted.
Asked about the reluctance expressed by people to be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, Mr. Karagiannis said that "for days now an effort has been made by all of us to reassure the people and convince them of the usefulness of the vaccine".
"We need the right information, transparency, that will help people make the right decision. "Tomorrow night there will be a teleconference of the epidemiological team and I hope that the issue will be discussed to help the situation", he said.
Asked about the epidemiological situation as it is formed, he noted that "the situation is still fluid. "With the fluctuations in the number of cases, it is very difficult for anyone to determine if we are on the right track or if we will see any further deterioration," he said.
"I hope things will stabilize and allow us to make some Easter decisions at least later this month," he said.
Asked about the possibility of easing the restrictive measures in view of Easter, Mr. Karagiannis said that it is difficult to predict this. He said that if the picture does not deteriorate significantly then he does not think there will be the introduction of new measures.
Asked if there could be any relaxation only for specific days during the Easter period, as was the case during the Christmas holidays, Mr. Karagiannis said that this could be done.
"If the picture does not improve then something like this can happen. "If the picture improves then the relaxations can be more general," he said.
Asked if he considers the number of people being vaccinated satisfactory, Mr. Karagiannis said that things could be better.
"We are wasting time, even one or two weeks, until someone decides to get the vaccine because of this situation, and we are late. And if these delays continue, it could be a month and a half. "So we have to understand that we are not helping the situation," he said.
"If some people do not want to listen, no matter what you do, they will not listen. "When they are not aware, they will not make the appropriate decision," he said.
Asked when a significant easing of the measures should be expected, Mr. Karagiannis said that they were counting on something like this in May, and that he hopes things will not be derailed.
"It is not so much the number of cases, as the number of patients, mainly in the ICU. "Yesterday we had 225 patients, which was the highest number we had so far," he pointed out.
He said that this is worrying but also expected in relation to the numbers we had recently.
"It's been two or three weeks now that we have a high number. When this happened at Christmas immediately with the measures taken the numbers were reduced. Therefore we did not reach the high levels of hospitalization. "But now that we have 450-500 cases every day, it must be understood that at some stage there will be pressure," he said.
And since, he added, "it is also about the mutated strain, now this pressure will be particularly felt for the younger ones".