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In Hungary, credible experts who know the history of epidemiological decisions and participate in high-level consultations rarely address the public.
These include Beatrix Oroszi, an epidemiologist at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, and Ferenc Jakab, head of the coronavirus research group created by the Pécs virologists and the government. That’s why the Wednesday night online discussion hosted by pediatrician Tamás Constantin with his participation was promising.
The nearly hour-long event ended without a third wave of deaths and hospital records, medical care at the limit of capabilities, how this situation could have been prevented, at least in part, or what could be done now to save. (The only thing that came to mind was that the organizer remembered the mourning masses for a minute at the end.)
Nevertheless, interesting things were said.
Russia said about the possible outbreaks of the epidemic, in the short term, our only option is to build immunity with the help of vaccines, which will protect a large percentage of the population from at least serious diseases and death.
“So we learn to live with the virus and we only cause mild to moderate illnesses that the health care system can treat. This can be achieved for the foreseeable future, so it is worth fighting for. We are at your fingertips ”.
The best theoretical option, of course, would be to get rid of the virus once and for all, but humanity has only been able to achieve this so far against smallpox. To do this, we need to develop long-term immunity and the virus should not change and be able to survive in animals and then return from there. Knowing the coronavirus, we have no chance of that.
The other, also unattainable in the short term, but already a realistic objective in the medium and long term, is to eliminate the virus. This means that the virus will disappear from parts of the world where a large proportion of the population has been vaccinated. “In this case, it is possible that this disease does not occur in a specific geographic unit, but in another place where it cannot be achieved, it can always be introduced from there.”
Russia said the vaccine is not a panacea, just a tool, but the best possible tool against the epidemic.
“He who says that there is a miracle cure in which we can put everything on and forget everything else, unfortunately is not telling the truth.”James tried to dispel the misconception that once we get the second dose of the vaccine, we can dispose of the mask and no longer have to follow the measurements. Vaccines can also get the virus, although each vaccine is suitable to reduce the chance of infection. However, as possible, this is still being investigated so that those vaccinated can transmit the virus.
Also, none of the vaccines are 100 percent, and there will surely be some who will never be able to get them for some reason. According to Jakab, therefore, it is very important that they continue to make progress in drug experiments and in the development of therapeutic methods.
No war, competition
At one point, Constantin suggested that one tends to do so, but perhaps still not lucky enough to speak about the virus in war rhetoric. According to Russia, it is better to consider this situation as a competition.
“We are trying to make the invisible virus visible,” to find out where it will appear, where it can spread epidemically, how we can prevent it from infecting more humans, he said. “It is a race in which the virus is our valued partner.”
According to the epidemiologist, we have done a lot to stop the spread of the virus, we have been good at it, but the virus has responded, so we need to develop more and more strategies, new vaccines to get ahead of ourselves.
When asked if he sees the possibility of winning the race, he said let’s not be insignificant.It is mainly a virus that spreads through a droplet infection, which is not unstoppable. It spreads faster than the flu, but slower than measles. And we would have been much worse in terms of illness and death, the SARS-1 or MERS virus would have been released to humanity.
According to him, if we could get everyone to put on the mask, keep a distance of two meters and pay attention to hand hygiene, the virus could not spread. These are rules that for many are difficult to follow, but there are vaccines, we do not lack resources.
“We have no reason to be unsure that we can do that.”
No sprint, marathon
The fact that the virus is primarily responsive means that it tries to survive more effectively with new mutations. In this regard, James praised mRNA vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna), which can be customized very quickly if a more dangerous variant emerges. However, according to him, this virus is not moving towards domestication.
According to Oroszi, it is important to know that the epidemic is not a sprint, but a marathon: we cannot win with vaccines overnight. He hopes that needle-free vaccines, such as nasal sprays and multicomponent vaccines, will appear in the longer term to protect against multiple variants at the same time. We may need to repeat the vaccination regularly, but not necessarily annually, as is the case with the flu.
About the opening, he said sensibly, it should be done gradually, without leaning back and letting go of the reins.
There were also concerns about AstraZeneca. They both said that there were so few cases of blood clots that it was clear that it was not the vaccine that caused these diseases. But the fact that this has become big news only shows that they pay close attention to side effects and don’t even touch the slightest sign.
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