City of Juarez.– Almost nothing after the extinction of the immunity time provided for by the ‘booster’ or third anti-covid dose in adults in Ciudad Juárez, the Federation has no information on the application of any additional antiviral that allows to increase the level of protection of the crossings seniors aged 18 and over, which experts say is ill-advised given rising rates of the disease.
Specialist doctors agreed that it is important to have active vaccination campaigns and even raised the need to inoculate a fourth dose against SARS-COV-2 in this city. And it is that although there is a parallelism of cases between 2020 (with 26 thousand 082) and 2022 (with 24 thousand 971), the number of deaths has dropped from 2 thousand 409 in the previous year to 587 in the current one.
This implies that although the difference in people infected with the virus between the two periods is only 4.26%, in turn the number of deaths decreased by 75% due to the National Vaccination Plan (PNV), through which they were applied 2.9 million doses in Juárez. More than 1.2 million inhabitants were thus reached with at least one organic product, covering 91% of those eligible for immunization.
Compared to the same period, but since 2021, the incidences of the virus from last January to this December have now had an increase of 109%, or more than double, given that last year it had 11,915 positives. Although the deaths were lower than the 1,693 documented at the time, the increase in the aforementioned condition – resulting from the appearance of multiple variants – caught the attention of the union in the health sector.
Alonso Ríos Delgado and Lorenzo Soberanes Maya, president and secretary of the Medical College, explained that the effectiveness of shields is decreasing over time. For this reason, professionals have stressed the importance that the government led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador soon send more formulas to seek control of the pandemic.
“Other countries, such as Canada and the United States, are already applying the fourth dose, especially in people over 60, in healthcare personnel and in people with aggravating pathologies. Thus, we stressed that it is urgent to apply these vaccines, because we had already indicated that with climate change it would increase and there are consequences, ”expressed Ríos Delgado.
Soberanes Maya stressed that despite the fact that recent mutations are not always more lethal, it must be understood that their impact, especially in the immunosuppressed, can be considerable. You expressed that it is important that those who can try to apply the second booster or the fourth dose in the neighboring country, since Mexico’s conditions are limited in the face of the current contingency.
“Yes, it is better to take advantage of a fourth dose. I think we have to take advantage of our border status, because in the US they apply it (…) We have advantages as a border, it would be worth starting to invite people. Here we depend on the economic capacity of our country, luckily the variables are no longer as pathological as the first ones we had ”, she said.
According to the Ministry of Health, in Juárez the National Epidemiological Surveillance System (Sisver) has counted 62,968 people who have contracted Covid-19; of these, 4 thousand 689 died. When asked about the arrival of further injections, the head of the agency, Felipe Sandoval Magallanes, stressed that the guidelines continue to be at the central level and for now there is no new information.
“Vaccination policies continue to be at the federal level. They didn’t tell us anything about it,” she said.
In turn, the state coordinator of vaccination, Hugo Lechuga Barrera, stressed that the goal of all those who make up the borders that make up the PNV is to ensure that society is safeguarded and – despite not providing details of a subsequent campaign – he assured that a hard job is being done.
The Welfare Secretariat official agreed with the state server. He explained that the efforts are subject to the supply of vaccines, but stressed that whenever it is deemed necessary and so foreseen by the Executive, the necessary will be done to guarantee people their right to health, which is enshrined in article of the Chamber Constitution. He emphasized that this is the goal.
“The most important thing for us is that, whenever an organic product arrives, we can assure people, and people who don’t have the booster, that they can apply it as we did, for the good of society (. ..) We continue to order and if later, tomorrow, more fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh dose operations are performed, we will do them with great pleasure, ”announced Lechuga Barrera.
He indicated that 2 million 981 thousand 682 injections were administered in this city by five different pharmaceutical companies. There were one million 766 thousand 651 from Pfizer for adults and 209 thousand 967 for children. Added to these are 922,440 from Astrazeneca, 30,000 from Johnson and Johnson, 26,841 from Cansino and 25,783 from Moderna. This, he specifies, after more than 259 operations, each understood as the opening times of the offices.
Per the Medical College, the shield loses strength and effectiveness after anywhere from nine months to a year, but it could be sooner depending on factors such as age and overall body condition. Doctor Leticia Chavarría Villa, a member of the city’s medical committee, agrees with this. The practitioner pointed out that it is probably necessary that – as with the flu – an annual application is required.
“It would already be another dose that would have to be given, if we managed it as a disease from which we must protect ourselves at every change of season. In winter it is when more cases occur due to the weather (…) It is variable (the time in which the organic loses strength) we have seen that people with a third dose have had problems, but it cannot be approved ”, he stressed .
Arturo Trejo Castillo, also a specialist, explained that the need for successive doses continues to be analyzed by international organizations, since viruses have unusual activity. “It’s risky to make a statement, as how long it takes depends on each organism,” he said and called on people to stick with the use of face masks and other precautionary measures as long as there is progress.
Respecting the schedules set, the age group “60 and over” was the only one who agreed to a fourth dose. This, from 3 to 6 May. The rest of the adults, on the other hand, were summoned only for boosters, or third doses: those aged 50 to 59 received it from January 31 to February 2; from 40 to 49, from 3 to 9 February; from 18 to 39, from 14 to 25 March, that is nine months ago.
Interviewees agreed that it is essential to bear in mind that the end of the state of emergency has not yet been decreed. For this they have appealed to the conscience of the citizenry to assist in the management of the condition. They pointed out that there are also known people who have resisted getting vaccinated, or who have only one or two applications, increasing their vulnerability.
