Jorge Tartaglione
08/13/2021 8:27 PM
Clarín.com
Opinion
Updated 08/13/2021 9:15 PM
Covid-19 vaccines have proven effective and caused a drop in hospitalization and death for those who have been inoculated.
Countries that have accelerated their vaccination program have changed the face of the pandemic.
Vaccines save lives and today we know that dying from this disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 is preventable.
With the Monday newspaper, knowing these results, every day when I receive the report of cases and deaths, I am flooded with enormous sadness at the thought of what would have happened if the vaccines had arrived earlier.
One of my great friends passed away hoping to get the vaccine.
In March of this year we met and he told me that he took great care of himself for fear of infecting his wife, who is diabetic.
In April he called me to tell me that he had been infected.
After a few days he was discharged and two days later he started short of breath.
While he was hospitalized, he called me with a broken voice and with great difficulty breathing, to say goodbye because he was going to be intubated.
As in these cases, the virus entered through a cleft and after 20 days of intensive therapy, his body could not handle the virus.
On his last day of life, the head of Intensive Care, where my friend was hospitalized, assured me that they had done everything - respirator, corticosteroids, anticoagulants.
They had applied everything that was within reach.
"I no longer know what to do, we did everything but the covid beats us, it is going to die," he confessed to me.
In that voice message, which I heard several times, I realized the impotence that all doctors suffer and their sadness full of anger.
They are dealing with a disease that is uncontrollable, has no treatment, and lacks specific medication.
When I receive messages against vaccines, I think of the 100,000 people who died and did not have the opportunity to get vaccinated.
In this group are the anti-vaccines out of religious or political conviction or those who agree with alternative medicines and, on the other hand, the undecided, those who are afraid or do not trust these vaccines.
It is probable that among the latter the comings and goings in communication, both from the State and the media, have had an influence.
It is common to see how, motivated by ideological differences, many generate alarm and doubt in the population.
Others have a perception of the risk of vaccines that is not real, it is distorted.
We know that "zero risk" does not exist.
Living involves assuming a set of more or less predictable risks, which we can quantify.
If we want to illustrate it in numbers, for example, the probability of dying in a car accident is one in 100, by bicycle it is one in 4,000 and by plane it is so minimal that it cannot be calculated.
But it is more common to find people who are afraid of traveling by plane and not by car.
The same is true of vaccines and medications.
We take them, in general, without looking at their leaflet where their adverse effects or contraindications are detailed, which are surely greater than those of the vaccine.
But we doubt her and ask her for “zero risk”.
When we are in pain, we take an over-the-counter pain reliever without worrying about its potentially serious side effects.
We need you to instantly ease the pain.
On the other hand, there are doubts about the vaccines against covid-19, since the disease seems distant.
Unfortunately, we have learned that this is not the case.
If we compare the risks associated with vaccines, the probability of developing a clot with the AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson vaccines is known to be 5 cases per million.
While the probability of suffering it if we do not get vaccinated and become infected with covid-19 is 450 per million.
It is important to disseminate this data.
Numbers are numbers, they are cold, but each one tells a life story.
We must have an adequate perception of risk.
Communicate with maximum transparency, without bias.
In the same way that the drug leaflets contain all the information, we must transmit it without marches and countermarches, so as not to generate mistrust.
Messages must be transparent and prudent.
For example, to ensure that Argentina is a success or a failure in the vaccination program, both messages are not sensible and may have a political bias.
In Argentina, vaccination against covid-19 is not mandatory, but is voluntary and free.
You can choose whether to get vaccinated or not.
And it is understandable that some are afraid of being vaccinated in the face of so much baseless information, which shapes and distorts the emotion at the real risk of inoculation.
More than 4 billion doses have been administered worldwide and no serious adverse effects have been reported on a large scale.
In the United States, 155 million people were vaccinated against covid-19 and, of them, only 125 thousand were infected, that is, less than 0.1%, of which 0.001% died.
There is no doubt that vaccines save lives, that vaccination must be a collective act of solidarity and that it constitutes an unprecedented scientific and logistical success in real life.
Jorge Tartaglione is a cardiologist doctor. President of the Argentine Cardiological Foundation.
