(CRHoy.com) Public health would be at risk if the incoming government’s intention to rescind the mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 materializes, This is what the scientists who take the pulse of the health emergency in the country warn.
The president-elect, Rodrigo Chaves, highlighted prior to the second round that, in his government, Whoever wanted to be vaccinated and whoever didn’t, who complied with the protocols to prevent the spread of this disease.
Meanwhile, at the end of last March, the vice president-elect, Stephan Brunner, went further and made a commitment to a group of parents that they would not be given the injection for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The economist and now politician affirmed through a video that, the State did not have to force inoculation. “We are going to make clear to you the advantages of vaccination, but if despite this advice, you decide not to get vaccinated, we are not going to force you,” he said.
Start fourth dose
For the demographer and health specialist, Luis Rosero Bixby, this decision would make no sense and would be a risk to public health.
“In Costa Rica, vaccinations have been mandatory for many years and It makes no sense that this public health measure is not continued in this pandemic which has proven to be effective,” he stressed.
According to Rosero Bixby, perhaps some people do not believe in the effectiveness of the vaccine because it did not achieve the task of preventing infections, but it has been effective in making -in case of contagion- the disease, be less severe and also reduce the risk of death.
Rosero suggests to the next administration that, far from neglecting vaccination, start as soon as possible with the campaign to place the second reinforcement against the virus, among the most vulnerable population before possible emergence of other variants.
“I hope they start applying the fourth dose to people with a compromised immune system, because if those people get infected, they are going to have a very bad time, “said Bixby.
huge recoil
For the former Minister of Health, María Luisa Ávila, who was the head of that portfolio in the midst of the appearance of the AH1N1 influenza, the idea of omitting the mandatory inoculation against COVID-19 or any other that make up the country’s vaccine scheme , is an occurrence that would be a “huge pushback” for the health system.
“I was in Ecuador and the groups that advocate for human rights they envy the vaccination system of Costa Rica and the General Health Law and I told them ‘it’s incredible, in Costa Rica they rather want to remove it,’” he said.
However, the pediatrician assures that the number of people who resist vaccination in the country is low.
“The (vaccination) coverage has been quite good. There is still one or another group that does not want to be vaccinated and if they do not want to and they are adults, they have their right, although one wants them to change (their thinking) but I cannot tie them up and hold them and vaccinate them by force. It is a call to the conscience of each one“.
However, Ávila recommends continue placing this injection in minors, because it is “a vaccine that has so many millions of doses applied and that they have confidence in the system, because no one is going to think of putting a vaccine to harm anyone.”
High vaccination
As of this April 18, the Integrated Vaccine System (SIVA) of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) reports 10,508,830 vaccines applied in the country since the start of the immunization campaign against COVID-19 in December 2020.
Of them, 4.386.191 they have been first doses; 4.055.152 second injections; Y 2.067.487 booster dose.
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