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What do I need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine?

Lovexair invited Dr. Esther Barreiro, renowned pulmonologist at Hospital del Mar, to lead an online workshop to address the issues that most concern the population about the vaccination campaign.

 

 

 

In these times of so many doubts and concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine, the Lovexair Foundation invited the Dr. Esther Barreiro, renowned pulmonologist, head of the bronchiectasis functional unit and researcher at the Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, ​​Spain), to lead an online workshop to address the issues that most concern the population today about the vaccination campaign.

What vaccines are approved? What is the vaccination plan? What is herd immunity? What are the side effects? These were some of the questions that were answered during the webinar, in which almost 90 people from Spain and Latin America participated, including patients and front-line health professionals.

Based on research and scientific evidence, Dr. Barreiro made a very clear and precise summary of the information currently circulating in relation to the different options that have come onto the market in recent weeks. In addition, from the Lovexair Foundation we present the current map of vaccines and we deal with the characteristics of each one: which ones are approved or in the last stage of development (phase 3), the secondary effects registered, which countries produce them and where they are destined, and the challenges of storage and distribution in each case.

“It is necessary that 70-80% of the population be immunized, that is, that they have been vaccinated, that they have been in contact with the virus, or both, so that the remaining 20-30% do not contract the virus. This is worldwide, that is, that 80% of the planet's inhabitants are immunized... It is a very difficult goal but this is how group or herd immunity is achieved to reduce the transmission of the disease and to protect the vulnerable groups".

Dr. Esther Barreiro

 

"No choice. Or we become immunized by the disease, with all that this implies, we become passively immunized through the vaccine. This is the only solution, if not, we will continue to live like this for 15, 20 or 40 years, many people will die or be left with serious consequences”.

Dr. Esther Barreiro

Dr. Barreiro, who is also head of the group at the Center for Biomedical Research in Respiratory Diseases Network (CIBERES) and professor at the Pompeu Fabra University, responded to most of the queries from the participants, many of them specifically referring to the cases of patients with chronic respiratory diseases.

Question: When does the second dose have to be applied? Does spacing or dilating the time between one shot and another have an impact on the results? Do you have to be exact the days recommended by the laboratory?

Response Dr. Barreiro: The ideal is always to respect what the laboratory indicates, because if they tell us something it is because it has been proven that this interval or minimum space of time is needed to generate the immune response. Now, if you have to sin of something, it is better to sin more than less. Example: if it coincides that you have a Thursday or Friday, and for whatever reason you cannot attend, it is preferable to wait until Monday and not administer it the day before. I don't think it would be a problem to be delayed 2 or 3 days, or even maybe 1 week due to personal situations. Although it is ideal to respect the time, but if for some reason you cannot, it is always better to dilate and not shorten.

 

Question: From what age can you be vaccinated? Will I be able to vaccinate my children?

Answer Dra. Barreiro: A cut-off point has been set at adolescence, between 16 and 18 years of age. The vaccine has not been tested in children. Children are known to be transmitters but they do not develop the disease in a very serious way.

 

Question: I have already had COVID, do I need to get vaccinated?

Response Dr. Barreiro: Yes, clearly yes. The level of antibodies (titers) must be evaluated in each case. If the disease has been strong or quite strong (fever and other symptoms for 2 or 3 weeks), this guarantees 8 months, but it is not yet known if there is protection beyond this period. If the disease has been weak, that is, almost without symptoms, in 2 months there is no longer any presence of antibodies. That is, the person who had COVID last year, this year has to be vaccinated.

 

Question: What is the protection period of the vaccine?

Answer Dr. Barreiro: It is not yet known, no one can answer this question yet because the studies are 2 years ahead, so we hope that by 2022 there will be more information on the results of the various clinical trials.

At the end of the talk, they explained Vaccination strategies and the planned schedule for Spain and the global approach, during 2021 of the available vaccines, in which priority is being given to vulnerable or risk groups: health personnel, because they are the most exposed people, residents and staff of centers for the elderly, and other priority groups that are pending announcement for the second stage.

Lovexair Foundation has the objective of promoting reliable and quality health information, based on scientific evidence, and for this it develops various online and face-to-face activities open to the community within the Awareness Line. 

If you want to receive information about our next activities, register on our page.
 

If you missed the workshop you can watch it here: