Myths and truths about covid-19 vaccines 4:21
(CNN Spanish) -
In recent weeks, both in the United States and in the rest of the region, we have read and heard that someone who had received a dose or the complete schedule of the covid-19 vaccine, contracted the disease .
Anti-vaccine groups and others point to this as a failure of vaccines, something that is not true.
Dr. Elmer Huerta explains in this episode why it happens and reminds him why getting vaccinated against covid-19 is the best option.
You can listen to this episode on Spotify or your favorite podcast platform or read the transcript below.
Hello, I am Dr. Elmer Huerta and this is your dose of information on the new coronavirus.
Information that we hope will be useful to take care of your health and that of your family.
Today we will see if - as some people think - infections that are occurring after vaccination should be considered a sign of vaccine failure.
advertising
Who are the non-vaccinated people in the US?
2:24
The Covid-19 Vaccine and Inequity in Access
The point is that more than 18 months have passed since the pandemic began in Wuhan and the long-awaited vaccine is with us, unfortunately there is a severe inequity in its distribution and use.
In this regard, it is estimated that despite the fact that enough doses have already been administered to fully vaccinate almost 30% of the world's population, countries and regions with the highest incomes are vaccinated 20 times faster than countries with the highest income. lower income.
That serious inequality aside for now, let's look at the issue of post-vaccination infections that are being seen in countries with higher vaccination coverage like Israel and the United States.
The news began to be known when vaccination reached a coverage of 20 to 30% of the population in those countries, and the majority of vaccinated people believed that vaccines would give them complete protection against infection.
Cases of infection after receiving the vaccine
The cases in the Anglo-Saxon media coined the term "breakthrough infection" to refer to cases of infection that occurred after vaccination, a word that in the opinion of many experts gave the impression that the vaccine had failed in its mission to protect the vaccinated individual.
This is because in English "break" means to break or violate and "through" -among its multiple meanings- means through, or from one side to the other.
"Breakthrough infection" then meant that the virus had broken, violated or crossed the person's defense system, allowing the infection to occur and, therefore, the cases of infection after the antigen (the term we prefer in Spanish) They caused nervousness in the population, awakening in the popular imagination the idea of failure of vaccines.
That made many people, especially those who still hesitated to apply it and many anti-vaccine people, then said that if one could get sick with covid-19 being fully vaccinated, why would they be vaccinated, and they put the vaccine failure label .
Hospitalizations of Unvaccinated Increase in Florida 3:45
Antigen prevents severe disease
The point is that these people were unaware that the effectiveness of vaccines was never aimed at preventing infection and mild disease, but at preventing complications caused by it.
That is, the pneumonia that caused the patient to be hospitalized or the severe respiratory failure that forced the patient to go to the intensive care unit.
The effectiveness of the antigen was aimed at preventing the death of the patient.
The fact that cases of infections and therefore mild cases of covid-19 can then occur was something to be expected after vaccination.
In this regard - knowing that there are limitations in calculating the exact number of cases of infections after vaccination, especially asymptomatic ones - an analysis of CDC data carried out by CNN found that among more than 164 million people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 until the beginning of August in the United States - at a time when the delta variant was not yet had - it was seen that less than 0.001% of these people (that is 1,507) died, and less than 0.005% (that is 7,101 ) were hospitalized with covid-19.
Those data suggest that, at that time, 99.99% of fully vaccinated people did not have a case of COVID-19 so severe that it resulted in hospitalization or death.
The efficacy of vaccines against the 4:05 delta variant
Variants and vaccines
Without a doubt, the delta variant has slightly varied those numbers.
In this regard, a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, published in July, found that, in the 18 states that provided data, at least 95% of hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 occurred in unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated people. .
If those stats aren't a hit, I don't know what might be.
Those numbers are compelling evidence of how well the vaccine is working so far, and that the fact that infections can occur after the antigen should not be considered a failure.
Vaccines are - so far - very effective in preventing serious illness and death, but due to the appearance of variants, and until vaccination coverage increases, a vaccinated person must continue to take care of themselves, especially those who have their immunity depressed, people for whom the FDA is planning to receive a third dose.
Finally, as CNN's colleague Sanjay Gupta writes, what vaccines have allowed us is that we can visit grandfather at his home and bring him chicken soup so that he can recover from mild Covid, instead of visiting him at his grave and taking him away. flowers to the cemetery.
Do you have questions about the coronavirus?
Send me your questions on Twitter, we will try to answer them in our next episodes.
You can find me at @DrHuerta.
If you think this podcast is helpful, be sure to subscribe to get the latest episode on your account and help others find it;
rating and reviewing it on your favorite podcast app.
And for the most up-to-date information, you can always head to CNNEspanol dot com.
Thanks for your attention.
If you have any questions you can send them to Dr. Elmer Huerta through Twitter. You can also head over to CNNE.com/coronaviruspodcast for all episodes of our "Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction" podcast.
coronavirus vaccine against covid-19
