Actor Mindaugas Papinigis: If it wasn’t for the vaccine, he probably wouldn’t have survived

– What is your general opinion on vaccines?

– I think vaccines are a very important scientific achievement that has allowed us, the people who are not yet fully perfected and sick, to reduce the population decrease a little and have made great benefits for people who want to survive. If it wasn’t for the vaccine, I probably wouldn’t have survived because I traveled through places where really serious illnesses occurred. And now I’m not dead and I’m very happy about it.

– Have you been vaccinated as a child?

– yeah Of course, that was not my choice. But sometimes I even got vaccinated twice. I liked it, and the kindergarten kids and the school didn’t like it, crying like those hippos in the movie, that’s when I said you could vaccinate me, that some sisters accepted. When I went to India, I was vaccinated against all relevant diseases there. More recently, also on a trip, I was vaccinated against the Yellow Butterfly. There was absolutely nothing, neither felt bad nor feverish. I didn’t get sick from the flu, I can’t say the reason, it was just like that. But if a passerby asked me to get a flu shot or not, I’d say yes. Since it was a cold winter this year, I think there will be a lot of insects, including ticks, next summer, and I like to be in the wild, so I think I will be vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis.

– Do you have opponents of vaccines in your immediate area?

– No, I’m with thorns I am not friends. These are ferocious fools who oppose not only this idea, but many thoughts in general. People who specifically oppose vaccines are probably not against their own health or that of others, just people who may need to express themselves in some way at the time, as if they were hostile. And vaccines are mixed along the way. If a person really delved into this and listened to what scientists say, people who have studied most of their lives and read a wide variety of literature in this direction, who have a competent opinion on the subject, would simply be easier. for that person to live and might stop resisting. But the fight by vaccine opponents is essentially at the level of opinion, not argument, making it impossible and pointless to win or continue this fight. There has always been and will be people who resist someone – they will speed up, swim farther than rescuers allow, and so on.

– How do you react to all the fears associated with vaccines? Does all misinformation about vaccines affect you in any way?

– I don’t react to them. And it doesn’t scare me, I don’t read that misinformation. I’m sure side effects can and do exist, but the benefits far outweigh the risks. And the disinformation does not reach me, I mean the filter in my mind and all the nonsense does not go through the ear, the person speaks and I do not hear.

– Did you experience any side effects after vaccination? Nearby?

– Not at all. And I did not hear from my loved ones that something serious would happen to someone due to the vaccine. Each of us should have compassion and fight not only for ourselves but also for others, but if there is no mind to vaccinate, it will not be mind and effort for others.

– What advice would you give to parents who do not know how to behave due to wrong information?

– I want people to think, I don’t want to insist that someone needs to be vaccinated. It is very difficult for me to advise parents, I am not a parent, but in any case, when a person doubts something, I think it would be more useful to listen to arguments and facts instead of opinions. Try to distance yourself from opinion for at least a while and try to listen to the scientifically based arguments that would be made by people who have experience and understanding in the field.

– Do you think there is enough information about the vaccines of the doctors themselves?

– I don’t think they are missing, but I think there could be more.