Covid-19 vaccination begins in the US 1:21
(CNN Spanish) -
United Kingdom, United States and Canada have already started vaccination against covid-19.
However, many people have said they would not get the vaccine.
In the first stage, the vaccine plan will focus on health personnel and residents of long-term care centers, who are the most vulnerable to contracting covid and having devastating consequences.
Millions are expected to be vaccinated before the end of the year.
The coronavirus vaccine is not yet widely available, so healthy adults under 65 and children in the U.S. are expected to wait until late spring or even summer 2021 for access. to the vaccine.
This also depends on how many vaccines are approved for the public and how quickly they are manufactured and distributed.
But while the vaccine is good news for the scientific community and for many it is the beginning of the end of the pandemic, the development of the vaccine in just eleven months - compared to vaccine research that has lasted years - has generated a great skepticism.
So much so that many have said they would not be vaccinated.
At least not yet, and the consequences can be devastating, according to experts.
How long does immunity from coronavirus vaccines last?
Diana Carolina, a Memorial Health System physician, receives the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech in Miramar, Florida, on December 14, 2020 (Credit: CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP via Getty Images)
"The implications of not getting vaccinated are relatively simple: you can get very severe covid and you can die," Dr. Joseph Varón, chief of staff at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, told CNN en Español.
«I think it is very important that people understand that one should be vaccinated.
You need to have that vaccine.
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Not getting the vaccine could leave those more likely to contract a much more violent coronavirus disease than those who do, according to Dr. Varón.
“In other words, if the disease starts to advance, people who are vaccinated will get ahead.
People who are not (vaccinated) are going to have the infection and the worst thing is that they can infect another.
So from the public health point of view, you become a problem, "said Varón, who added that those who have pre-existing conditions can have much more serious consequences such as death, just as we see today.
California begins vaccination against covid-19 4:24
Protecting the vaccine against the coronavirus
So far it is known that the only licensed vaccine, that of Pfizer and BioNTech, is up to 95% effective in fighting the coronavirus with two doses.
But it is not known how long the immunity will last.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "it is too early" to know how much the long-term protection of the vaccine is.
If a person chooses not to be vaccinated, the implications can be broader, as not only will they not get protection against COVID-19, but it could potentially make it difficult to obtain herd immunity and make vulnerable groups at high risk who may not receive the vaccine.
"That moment of herd immunity is delayed because the virus exists by being able to jump from one person to another and if people already have antibodies, then that represents a way to block the transmission of the virus," Dr. José told CNN Torradas, an emergency physician and spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians, based in Pennsylvania, United States.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, America's leading infectious disease expert, said last week that he hopes the country will have a regular vaccination program where most people can be vaccinated very quickly and thus return to normalcy, whether in the summer of 2021 or in the fall.
“My hope and my projection is that if we get people to get vaccinated en masse so that we get that large percentage of the population, as we get closer to autumn, we can have real comfort that people are in school, for sure at school, whether it's kindergarten through grade 12, or at university, "added Fauci.
eCanada begins vaccination against covid-19
How to achieve a herd immunity with the vaccine?
Experts agree that applying the vaccine collectively can contain the pandemic.
According to the most recent NPR / PBS Newshour / Marist College survey, 32% of those surveyed would not get the vaccine, while 61% said they would (in September 49% said they would).
It is estimated that a COVID-19 vaccine will need to be accepted by at least 55% of the population to provide immunity to the community, according to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and some scientists anticipate that even larger numbers will be needed. .
For Torradas, not getting vaccinated would follow the situation like the one we live in the present, in which more than 73 million people have been infected with coronavirus and 1.6 million people have died since the start of the pandemic.
More than 300,000 of them in the US.
"In terms of those who don't get vaccinated, it's not that they are more of a danger than they can be right now," Torradas said.
«It is understanding that by not getting vaccinated if you don't have antibodies, you can become infected and that does not mean that you cannot infect people who have been vaccinated.
People who have been vaccinated have at least a higher chance of not having severe complications.
The start of vaccination against covid-19 was a moment of hope in the 'darkest days' of the pandemic, says an expert.
But they are not over yet
The problem of misinformation
The anti-vaccine movement has been gaining steam in recent years, with some parents refusing to vaccinate their children against diseases that were once eradicated, such as polio and measles.
"There is a general feeling against science, against authority and against vaccines among some people in this country, an alarmingly large percentage of people, relatively speaking," Dr. Fauci told CNN in recent months.
And that misinformation can be deadly in terms of public health amid a devastating pandemic that has left millions infected.
“Unfortunately, an environment of trust and adequate information has not been created due to all the erroneous and misinformed communications that the government of this country has given.
And that causes that reluctance, "Dr. Flor Muñoz, a vaccine expert and researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN en Español.
According to Muñoz, the misinformation about vaccines is unfortunate.
The expert urges people to take advantage of the "best option we have at this time", which are vaccines to help eradicate the lethality of this pandemic.
«It has been the best option in the history of humanity.
The fact of having vaccines that eliminate infections that may be like these.
It is what humanity has dragged down many previous plagues and many previous epidemics, ”added Muñoz.
Experts continue to insist that vaccination, which is not yet massive and only available to certain groups, is not the only response to the pandemic.
We must continue with hand washing, physical distancing and the use of face masks to stop the spread of the virus.
- With information from Carolina Melo of CNN en Español and Maggie Fox, Katie Hunt, Harry Enten and Elizabeth Cohen of CNN.
covid-19 coronavirus vaccine
