MADRID, Dec. 29 (EDITIONS) –
Vaccination against COVID-19 has finally begun in Spain. There are many people at risk who will be more protected against this infection thanks to the formula designed by the researchers. Millions of lives will be saved, when until now they have been lost due to the infection since last March.
And it is that history has shown us that, vaccines are safe, they work. The WHO is clear: “Vaccination is a safe and effective way to prevent disease and save lives, today more than ever. “
Currently, as detailed, we have vaccines to protect us against at least 20 diseases, including diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, flu and measles. Together, these vaccines save three million lives each year. “When we get vaccinated we not only protect ourselves, but also those around us”, adds.
What’s more, it stresses that if we don’t get vaccinated at a general level, we run the risk of contracting serious diseases that can be disabling and deadly, such as COVID-19. “Today, infectious diseases easily cross borders and infect people who are not protected,” he warns, while insisting that the two main reasons to get vaccinated are: Protect ourselves and protect people who around us.
One of the biggest fears of the population about vaccination against COVID-19 is that it is a drug that has been designed in a very short time, has been tested in not many people, and about which some adverse reactions have been described.
It was in mid-December when, for example, Canada described all the adverse effects caused by the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine (which is currently being inoculated in Spain) according to its clinical trials. These do not go beyond any adverse reaction that a regular vaccine may cause: Redness or swelling of the puncture area, fever, fatigue, muscle pain, or headache, among others, and symptoms that not everyone suffered, and that generally resolved within two days.
Why then should we get vaccinated despite these side effects that are occurring and may occur in the coming weeks? In an interview with Infosalus, Dr. Marcos López Hoyos, president of the Spanish Immunology Society, and head of the Immunology Service of the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital in Santander, considers that “vaccines have always caused an allergic reaction” in some people, This is the reason why they always ask us to stay with our children half an hour later at the health center when we vaccinate them.
As he warns, with the COVID vaccine, the same would happen as with medications such as anti-inflammatories or antibiotics. “Many people will have had an allergy experience with these drugs. In fact, it is a common question in the doctor’s office: ‘Do you have an allergy to any medicine?’. Thus, allergies do not occur especially with vaccines, nor now with COVID-19. The cause of possible reactions is in the excipients in the vaccine, “he points out.
Therefore, he insists that neither should vaccination be avoided in allergy sufferers, as he mentioned at the beginning, except in those highly sensitized and who are usually well known by the Allergology Services, as he qualifies. “In the rest of cases and allergy sufferers there is no contraindication to getting the vaccine, nor is any previous study necessary“, qualifies.
In the opinion of the president of the Spanish Immunology Society, it should be emphasized that vaccines “are safe”, and so far have “a high degree of efficacy”. As for the speed in the availability of vaccines, he says that it responds to the fact that Science has turned to solve this health emergency, the administration has reduced administrative obstacles, and a huge amount of money has been dedicated to it.
“Please, trust science and be clear that steps will not be taken that put the population at risk. The discomfort that the vaccine can generate in 2-3 days will never be comparable to what the infection produces and of course they do not pose a vital risk like COVID-19 “, highlights the expert in Immunology.
For her part, and in an interview with Infosalus, Ángela Domínguez, who coordinates the Group on Vaccinations of the Spanish Epidemiology Society, also maintains the argument that any vaccine, like any medication, can cause adverse effects, so they are Pre-authorization studies are necessary in which it has been shown that adverse reactions are not frequent.
With this, he remarks that with the COVID-19 vaccination, and now with a more generalized vaccination, surveillance of said reactions will be maintained: “Any vaccine has contraindications (people for whom its administration is not indicated) and a Contraindication that must be taken into consideration is that people who have had generalized allergic reactions after receiving the vaccine or any of the components of the vaccine should not receive it. People who have had an allergic reaction after the administration of the first doses should not receive the second dose of the vaccine. “
The professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Barcelona and researcher at the Consortium for Biomedical Research in the Epidemiology and Public Health Network (CIBERESP) emphasizes that, in the studies that are previously carried out on vaccines, and that present to the entities that have to authorize them, information must be provided that possible adverse reactions have been investigated and that these have not been serious and are infrequent.
“So that the benefit of vaccination in preventing the disease far outweighs the possible harm of detected adverse reactions. But the number of people who have received this vaccine today is limited (of a few thousand people), so it may be that reactions that have not been seen during the studies before authorization appear later, and this fully justifies that post-authorization surveillance be continued, when the vaccine is already being widely used in the population, “adds Ángela Domínguez.
Regarding the reluctance of part of the population due to the speed with which a formula against COVID infection has been designed, the coordinator of the group on vaccinations of the Spanish Epidemiology Society emphasizes that receiving a vaccine against COVID-19 has a double objective: to protect the person who receives it and at the same time, as many people are vaccinated, to create a barrier in the community that prevents the virus from spreading with the freedom with which it does so in the absence of vaccination .
“Therefore, both From the individual point of view as a group, it is much better to be vaccinated than to suffer from the disease. In some people it involves serious consequences, the need for hospitalization, intensive care, sequelae, and there is even a risk of dying, “he maintains.
Finally, stress that a great research effort has been made to have vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and availability will change. “As new vaccines are authorized after having demonstrated their efficacy and safety, the injection options will increase and, in addition, it will be in a position to establish indications of which vaccines are preferable for which people,” he says.
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