The ranking of vaccination in Latin America 1:15
(CNN Spanish) -
Since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) was clear on one point: the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is more dangerous for older people and for people with underlying pathologies.
This was reflected in many ways, such as the great impact that people over 60 had in the American continent in the first months of the pandemic.
Despite the fact that the young people were not out of danger, in these months it was observed that their probability of suffering a serious covid-19 and, above all, dying from this disease was lower than that of older adults.
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"Starting with each decade of life, the probability of dying was doubling from the age of 20 onwards. Those aged 30 and over were twice those of 20, those aged 40 and over, twice those of 30; and 50, double those of 40. And so on progressively ", commented Dr. Diego Rosselli, professor of Health Economics at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, in an interview with CNN.
Covid-19 is hitting the youngest
However, after more than a year of the pandemic, the situation has taken a turn, as it is now young people who are becoming more and more infected in various parts of the world.
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In the United States, COVID-19 cases are on the rise in 45 states, and medical personnel note that hospitalized patients are younger than ever before in this pandemic.
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Likewise, the Mexican authorities confirmed that the country is already facing a third wave of COVID-19 infections and that this is equivalent to the trend of the first and second waves.
In the midst of this context, the highest number of cases affects the younger population, according to the Government of Mexico.
And this phenomenon is not unique to America.
In Spain, from Tuesday June 29 to Monday July 12, the rate of infections by the new coronavirus in people between 12 and 29 years old has more than quadrupled, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
In other words, there are more than 1,000 positives per 100,000 inhabitants in that period.
"We can have an impact on hospitals, perhaps not as high as we have had in other waves, but it is important. And therefore there may be some units that may again have excessive pressure", Fernando Simón, director of the Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies of Spain, said at a press conference at a press conference.
All this leads us to a question: why are young people now the ones who are concentrating the cases of covid-19?
Vaccination of the older sectors
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The problem of the high rate of infections in young people is something that has been announced for months.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned of this situation in May, when it said that hospitalizations and deaths from covid-19 were increasing in young adults.
In an interview with CNN, Dr. María Fernanda Gutiérrez, a virologist at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, pointed out that one of the first reasons for this is that vaccinations worldwide began with the oldest population, who were the ones who ran the most. irrigation at those times.
And, along with this, several countries, especially in Latin America, still do not arrive with vaccines for people under 40.
"What he means is that the people who are without immunity are people under 40 years of age. We are talking about 18 to 40 years of age, the people who are becoming infected," Gutiérrez added.
Self-care relaxation
The expert from the Javeriana University stressed that, despite the fact that immunizations have not yet reached young people in various parts of the world, vaccination made this sector relax measures to protect itself from the virus.
"With the advent of vaccines, we have another situation: that people began to think that this was already ending and there are many people who say 'Well, that's it, let's stay calm.' That has led to people having decreased much your commitment to self-care.
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"And that is done more by young people, who have always been people who have considered that it does not give them or that, if they do, it will give them less than older people," said Dr. Gutiérrez.
"Many meetings, many parties"
The relaxation of care measures by this sector of the population has brought with it activities that are contraindicated in the pandemic.
"Young people believe they are immortal. Young people think that the disease will hardly affect them at all. They do not take care of themselves so much. They have many more meetings, more parties, in countries where there are quarantines or periods of confinement they have clandestine parties" , said in an interview Dr. Elmer Huerta, specialist in Oncology and Public Health and CNN collaborator.
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Dr. Huerta, who is a professor at George Washington University, assured that this situation does not occur exclusively in one continent or country, but rather is a generalized phenomenon, where young people violate the measures and that is why they are seeing themselves more infections and hospitalizations.
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"It occurs in a generalized way. I believe that young people in almost all countries have the same ideas that they are invincible. It can change a little with respect to society.
"For example, in the United States, where society has already opened up a lot, since they are the ones who have left the most first, the ones who stop at bars, restaurants, because society has already allowed it. we go to places in the US where there is little vaccination coverage or a low vaccination rate, so obviously they are going to get infected much faster, "the CNN specialist emphasized.
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When young people attend parties, that involves crowds and usually also means not wearing masks or maintaining physical distance.
However, these agglomerations of young people not only arrive due to a lack of respect for sanitary measures, but it is a multifactorial phenomenon.
Due to the confinements, "it is young people who have seen their mental health, their need to socialize or even their need to work most affected. When we talk about young people and covid, we are not always talking about adolescents and people in their twenties, but generally under the age of fifty. So it is the economically active people and those that particularly our Latin American countries with informal economy had to go out to look for their livelihood, "explained Dr. Rosselli.
"So there has also been an increase in contagion options given by a greater agglomeration of people for work and social reasons that must have affected young people more than the elderly," added the expert.
What to say to young people?
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All three health experts unanimously agree on one thing: young people should make sure they receive their Covid-19 vaccine when their turn comes.
And, along with this advice, young people should understand that the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 is "Russian roulette."
"What I would say to young people is that this covid-19 disease is a Russian roulette. Nobody knows if it will fall in the 80 percent of people who will pass this disease as if nothing, as a simple pain from throat, or in the 15 percent of cases that are going to get sicker and fall into bed, or the 5 percent that can go to the hospital and die. "
"So, no matter how young they are, no matter how strong they are, if the virus catches them, no one is going to know if they are going to be in 80, 15 or 5," declared Dr. Huerta.
Therefore, it is still best to appeal to self-care and common sense, with the aim of not bringing the disease to the most vulnerable people, who are still the elderly and those with underlying diseases.
"By taking care of themselves as people, they are going to take care of their families and society as well," concluded the CNN specialist.
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