Experts ask to speed up vaccination against Ómicron

Given the appearance of the Omicron variant, specialists considered that although no country is prepared to face the mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the Covid-19 disease, the federal government should focus on accelerating the application of vaccines In our country.

“We still have a large proportion of people who have not been immunized (natural or with a vaccine) and that is a risk. It is very important to emphasize vaccination, to increase speed, the intensity of the supply of vaccines has noticeably decreased, I understand that there is a large reserve of doses, but we have to be at this time with a very intense campaign with multiple vaccination centers open to groups that have been decided as priorities for this moment, “said Samuel Ponce de León.

The coordinator of the UNAM University Health Research Program indicated that perhaps it is a good time to apply third doses for high-risk people and “complete the doses of those who have other vaccines, such as the case of Cansino that requires a second, it is already very clear fundamentally ”.

Until yesterday, according to information from the federal Ministry of Health (SSA), 76 million 685,147 people were reported as vaccinated, of this total, 64 million 971,111 have the complete scheme, that is, 85% of the population 18 years and older.

However, if the entire population of our country is taken into consideration, which is a little over 126 million, only half of it has been inoculated, as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) stated a few days ago .

Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero and Veracruz are the entities that are below 75% of the coverage per entity in population with at least one dose and only the CDMX has 100% in this area.

Regarding the total doses received since December 23 of last year, the health authorities reported that there are 174 million 646,365 doses, of which 93,474 have been classified as “lost” and 132 million 422,896 have been applied. That is, 42 million 129,995 doses are unused.

On the other hand, a total of 4.1 million new doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca are expected to arrive during this week.

Set alarms

For his part, Malaquías López Cervantes, academic from the Department of Public Health of the UNAM Faculty of Medicine, considered that variants such as Ómicron can run very quickly in the countries. He also considered that the rise in infections in the north of the country could be due to the opening of the border.

“Indeed, I think that before people began to talk about Ómicron, they were already talking about an increase in cases in the northwest corner of Mexico, sooner or later the population movements carry infections to other regions of the country and we can see how the fourth wave in all states ”, he explained.

The specialist assured that our country is not well positioned before the new variant located in South Africa, since he considered that no different preparations have been made throughout the pandemic. “The contagion has been allowed to run freely and the only thing that is intended is to care for the very sick, which has been of little use.”

He considered that the evidence that has been collected around the new variant is very little, however, he indicated, the mutation could affect monoclonal antibodies, this means that the drugs “that were so celebrated recently that had been developed, because they can be overcome by this variant; pass over that protection.

“It does not mean that it is the same in all vaccines, but it does put them at risk, and it does put those of us who have received it in a compromised situation,” he said.

The specialist added that if this new wave were to appear, a new rebound in both infections and deaths will be observed. “We cannot think that it will be the same as a year ago, but we can say that they will increase.”

For his part, Alejandro Macías, former national commissioner to combat influenza A (H1N1) in 2009 indicated that if the information that flowed in the African country is specified, it would mean that the new variant will replace the Delta variant.

“If that is the case, Mexico and the whole world are going to suffer the onslaught of the Omicron variant, we have yet to see how serious the clinical pictures would be; how well they would respond to vaccines, how different patients would be clinically, how they would respond to the therapeutic tools that we currently have (…) there is a lot of information that we still have to know to see where we are going ”.

The three specialists asked the general population not to lower their guard since “this is not over yet”, to continue the use of face masks in all closed spaces, avoid riots, ventilate closed spaces and get vaccinated as soon as possible. .

Will present today report on SARS-CoV-2 mutation

Federal Executive rules out closures due to new variant of Covid-19

“There are no elements to worry about, there are no risk reasons,” said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned this Monday that the Omicron variant represents a very high risk of expansion in the world and could generate new spikes of contagion.

When asked about the possible application of booster doses in Mexico as is already done in other countries, the federal president said that on December 1, during his report in the Zócalo, he will make an announcement about vaccination.

Regarding a possible closure of activities to prevent infections, the federal president ruled it out: “no, we do not have that prognosis, we think that we have advanced a lot in vaccination and that we continue to vaccinate, and we are going to intensify the entire vaccination program.”

During his morning press conference, which this time was held in Oaxaca. López Obrador said there is no evidence to show that Ómicron, the new variant of the coronavirus, can cause greater harm to people.

“To tell all Mexicans that we are carrying out a follow-up, that there are no elements to worry about, there are no reasons for risk, according to the reports that the specialists have given me,” he said.

He expressed that today, during his morning conference, a report will be presented on the latest known of the variant.

“There is still no solid information if this variant is more dangerous than the other variants (…) There is also no information, this must be so, very clear, that the vaccines are not effective to face this variant. You cannot say: vaccines are useless; on the contrary, what is proven, proven, is that the best thing is the vaccine to prevent ”, he said. (Jorge Monroy)

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Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx

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