While shopping malls, skating rinks and other attractions seem crowded with residents of the capital during the December festivities, the local health centers where the strengthening of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine is applied are empty or with few people, in a context of the sixth wave of infections of this disease.
Unlike last year’s vaccination days, when there were long lines and gatherings of those who came to obtain the organic, one week after the start of the application of the booster dose with the Cuban Abdala vaccine, the forms show lines of less than ten people.
In a tour carried out by La Razón, it emerged that in the “José María Rodríguez” Health Center, located in San Antonio Abad, in the Cuauhtémoc neighborhood, there was a queue of just seven people this Tuesday morning who wanted to ask for information or get vaccinated.
But others have remained decidedly deserted, such as the Dr. Manuel Domínguez Health Center, located on Calle de Héroes, in the Guerrero neighborhood.
This place, where flu and Covid-19 vaccines are also applied for children under five, as stated on the banners posted outside, seemed to be without people at least until noon yesterday.
In other forms by Mayors Iztapalapa and Venustiano Carranza there were queues of only five people, which motivated the local Health Secretariat (Sedesa) to invite people to get vaccinated.
In contrast, other places in the capital, such as shopping malls, ice rinks, museums, pilgrimages and the Christmas Verbena installed on the plate of the Zócalo, seemed saturated with citizens looking for distraction or entertainment.
In the Zócalo, this Tuesday there were long queues to access the slot machines. The same thing happened outside some museums in the first square of the city, as well as in the shops on the nearby streets, where hundreds were looking for various products, especially clothing.
Lourdes Rosario, 36, a woman from the capital who has enjoyed the sights of the city’s historic center, told this media outlet that she hasn’t gone for her booster shot yet, despite having been there for more than four last-applied months.
The ideal would be to have a vaccine with fully demonstrated efficacy and which can give the best possible result, but that’s what there is
Malaquías López Cervantes, Professor at UNAM
Although she does not intend to shirk the application of the vaccine, because she considers it “important”, it is better for her to “take advantage of these family appointments, after not having been able to enjoy them well in recent years. And she said: “Thank God my family it’s complete”.
Other residents of the capital have not yet applied the vaccine because due to the low temperatures they have fallen ill in the respiratory tract, so they cannot yet access organic products. This is the case with Gabriel Sánchez, a citizen of Mayor Gustavo A. Madero’s office, who told this media that he had recently had “a lot of flu” and his doctor advised him to wait for the respiratory symptoms to pass before he can apply another dose.
“I got vaccinated more than six months ago, when I did the booster, and I wanted to go there these days, but when I’m sick they say you can’t. I was also seeing if somewhere you can get the flu, but the flu will pass,” she said.
Meanwhile, other residents of the capital have shown skepticism about the Cuban vaccine, as it is not yet approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to several social network users. Others have asked the authorities to apply the organic of the same brand they received in the first doses.
Raúl, 33, who lives in the mayor’s office of Cuauhtémoc, explained that he still “doesn’t dare” to wear the Abdala, because he would like access to the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was the one that was applied to him on the two previous occasions.
IT IS PRUDENT TO APPLY ABDALA: EXPERT
Despite the reservations of the population to apply a vaccine not approved by the WHO, the most “prudent” thing in the face of the increase in infections would be to apply the reinforcement of Abdala, considered by Dr. Malaquías López Cervantes, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the ‘AN M.
For this he invited the public to come for the inoculation: “The ideal would be to have a fully tested vaccine that can give the best possible result, but it is what it is; I think citizens realize that something is being applied which is not recognized in the world and therefore they do not accept it so easily; but given the wave of infections, the most prudent thing to do is to recommend people to get vaccinated, hopefully and this helps us reduce the danger the population is in ”.
