Immunologist Dr. Raketic: How will we best know that coronavirus vaccines are safe

Photo: Pixabay; private archive; Telegraf

Many are not aware of the importance of inoculation, now that we are in the midst of a pandemic caused by coronavirus. Moreover, there are many people who are scared and do not have the awareness that vaccines saved the humanity, but also any elementary knowledge about it.

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Driven by the propaganda of the anti-vaxxer movement, they refer to shaky arguments about harmfulness, especially of vaccines that are going through the final stages of clinical trials, and which are the only hope that can stop this plague.

We spoke about this, but also about the spread of the virus in the population, with Dr. Nevenka Raketic, a pediatrician and immunologist.

• To what degree are children potentially the carriers, considering that schools have not closed?

"The latest studies, primarily by American authors, show that there is lowest transmission of coronavirus between children and adults. Adults are the ones who are more likely to transmit the virus, and that is how children get infected. The lowest level of transmission is among preschool children, somewhat more in primary school, and in our country, considering that high school students go out and that cafes are open, in addition to official data, the level of transmission of the infection is much higher," Dr. Raketic pointed out.

Photo: Tanjug/AP

She also mentioned that children are not a risk group, but they are potential carriers and thus represent a risk for the spread of the virus. This milder, camouflaged form, which can look like common cold, not even like the flu, is more common in children.

"In young children, sometimes we cannot diagnose the key symptom, the loss of the sense of smell, stomach problems are characteristic as symptoms of coronavirus, but the main symptom is a runny nose and a sore throat, very rarely they have a cough, because that would indicate pneumonia, and this occurs in children rarely as a complication. In America, there have been cases of children with a clinical picture similar to Kawasaki syndrome, followed by rashes on the body and swollen joints, but in our country, no such case has been recorded," the doctor told us.

And then we spoke about the devastating and alarming social phenomenon where the belief has become ingrained that vaccines "kill" and cause serious side effects that result in death.

• Why has the anti-vaxxer lobby become louder, stronger amid a pandemic, and why are they so opposed to vaccination?

"Unfortunately, that movement has been strong for the last 30 years, and it all started with the MMR vaccine and the false claim that it has something to do with autism, while it was confirmed that there is no correlation in more than 100 different papers, different research centers. As for coronavirus, their argument is that the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine has not been sufficiently tested. However, most of these vaccines are already in the third phase of clinical trials, the Russian one is already widely used, which is a confirmation of their safety," Dr. Nevenka explained.

Photo: Profimedia

If you are wondering how come the coronavirus vaccine came so quickly, the answer is that with the SARS virus appeared in 2002 when the testing of the vaccine began, so the process of making it just continued. The epidemiological situation calls for vaccines to be launched to market as soon as possible.

"Moderna, for example, has 95% efficiency, which is fantastic, some others have up to 97%, which means that they are efficient, but also safe because they would certainly not reach phase 3 if their safety was in question," the doctor explained.

Dr. Raketic noted that currently seasonal flu in correlation with Covid-19 can significantly complicate an existing infection, but also that there is increased awareness of vaccination now, and that all stocks and doses intended for seasonal flu ordered from various manufacturers have already been used.

"The awareness of our people has increased at this moment and that is a positive thing. We used to have a problem due to the refusal of parents to vaccinate their children, and as a consequence we had an epidemic of measles in 2018 in Serbia, with fatal outcomes - parents have in a way come to their senses. Indeed, no fatal outcome has ever been reported due to the MMR vaccine, while the worst that can happen as a side effect is redness and pain at the injection site, slightly elevated temperature, but the newer generation of vaccines does not even have this side effect."

• We also asked the doctor if people can get microchipped through vaccination, considering that there is a big debate about this, especially on social networks and among conspiracy theorists

"Of course not. This comes as a package deal with theories about the 5G network," the doctor was explicit, and stressed the data on the benefits and importance of vaccination of the population:

"Millions of lives have been saved throughout history. The vaccine is the greatest medical achievement ever made, it is incomparable even to antibiotics, or even with treatment of malignant diseases. Everything else pales in comparison to how much vaccination has contributed to improving the health of the entire global population. Many fatal diseases have been eradicated. Poliomyelitis, diphtheria, tetanus, various types of meningitis, whooping cough and measles would have been eradicated if only there was not for that anti-vaxxer movement that sets us back, unfortunately."

(Telegraf.rs)