When asked about the new Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during his press conference yesterday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador tried to minimize the severity that this new manifestation of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus could have.
First, he ruled out that activities will be closed again because “we have advanced a lot in vaccination and we continue to vaccinate, and we are going to intensify the entire vaccination program.”
Have we made much progress in the vaccination program against COVID-19?
Until yesterday, only 49.9% of the population over 18 years of age was fully vaccinated, while another 9% had only received one of the two required doses. This means that 41.1% have not been vaccinated for some reason or another and that if to this percentage is added the 9% that is partially vaccinated, we have that 50.1% of the population does not have protection against the Delta or Omicron variants.
The problem facing the country is greater if you consider that studies show that none of the anticovid vaccines protects for more than six months. That is why in more and more countries booster vaccines are being applied, especially to those over 60 years of age.
To the 50.1% of adults over 18 years of age who are partially or totally unprotected, we must add the thousands of people who were fully vaccinated before last June 1 in view of the fact that they have lost the protection that the doses received at one point provided them.
Officially and inexplicably, the vaccination program against Covid-19 in people over 18 years of age concluded on October 29, but it would be convenient for the government to inform how it is going to vaccinate 41.1% of those who have not been vaccinated, how it is going to apply the second dose at 9% that requires it and how to apply the third dose to those who have been vaccinated for six months or more.
AMLO said that “there are no elements to worry about, there are no risk reasons (…) there is still no solid information if this variant is more dangerous than the other variants (…) in terms of infections and deaths, there is still no information (…) There is also no information that vaccines are not effective to face this variant … ”.
The president believes that we should not worry about the appearance of a new variant after Covid-19 has killed at least 730,384 people in our country (293,449 until last Sunday according to the Ministry of Health plus 436,935 excess deaths until October 25, also according to the SSa).
The truth is that we should be concerned because while there is no information that indicates that Ómicron is more dangerous than Delta or the original virus, it is also not known that it is not. Nor is it known how effective existing vaccines are. What is known is that the first investigations indicate that it may be 500% more contagious than the original coronavirus (Delta is 70% more contagious).
Despite the fact that his government has not known how to face the pandemic, Andrés Manuel has managed to convince his followers that things have been done very well. That is why you can afford to minimize the danger of Ómicron, knowing that it will continue to be popular even if thousands more people die from this new variant.
Facebook: Eduardo J Ruiz-Healy
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Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx