08/27/2020 - 18:52
- Clarín.com
- Society
Fernando Polack, the Argentine doctor who carries out the test of one of the vaccines against the coronavirus, confirmed today that he suffered from covid-19 on two occasions. He suffered a first picture of the disease at the end of April and a reinfection "of a mild nature" days ago "that was already overcome". Brief, in dialogue with Clarín, he said he was in perfect condition and explained that "reinfections in this type of respiratory virus tend to be less aggressive."
Polack, 53, gained public notoriety after the outbreak of the pandemic in Argentina. In his capacity as a researcher pediatrician and specialist in respiratory diseases, he announced at the beginning of June the launch of the most ambitious research project on the use of plasma in patients with coronavirus that is being carried out in Argentina. Currently, this investigation is progressing steadily at the Central Military Hospital.
But a few days after announcing the plasma project , Polack appeared at Quinta de Olivos with representatives of the North American laboratory Pfizer to agree with the government that Argentina would be part of the trial for a phase 3 coronavirus vaccine . It is one of the projects that are also in progress. It is also coordinated by Polack at the headquarters of the Central Military Hospital, in the Palermo neighborhood. In recent days, the first Argentines who participate in the test began to offer their testimony.
In the midst of all these hectic, time-trial scenarios, and in a context of a growing pandemic, Polack suffered the same fate as many health workers. The close work involved in carrying out this type of trial undoubtedly increased the chance of contracting the disease. "In the second half of April I went to sleep with a slight discomfort in my throat that turned into a low-grade fever in the morning, a little coughing and decay. When SARS CoV2 was hardly circulating in Buenos Aires and the quarantine had just begun , I ended up spending 14 days at home with a mild picture of coronavirus that disappeared as it came, "Polack told Infobae.
The reinfection, he said, occurred from a close contact who was diagnosed with Covid. He got over it without major problems.
Polack explained that "all respiratory viral infections work in the same way. They protect the lung very well and for a long time, and the nose badly and for a short time. This explains why we get colds over and over again in winters and allows us to change that annoyance by defenses that in each new episode are refined by the body to be better. Immunity is similar to sculpture, it requires a lot of work to be very good. Reinfections are the rule in these respiratory diseases and there is nothing special. They are normally mild, "he concluded.