People mistakenly believe that two-dose vaccination completely protects them from coronavirus infection and neglect safety precautions. This is how Professor Santiago Mas-Como, an expert with the World Health Organization (WHO) and president of the International Federation of Tropical Medicine, explained the increase in the incidence of COVID-19 worldwide.
According to him, vaccinated people are less likely to use masks, do not maintain social distance and are less careful in crowded places. “With the onset of lower winter temperatures, people will spend less time on the streets, which, in turn, will increase the risk of infection indoors, such as restaurants, bars, etc.,” said the epidemiologist in an interview with Lenta.ru.
Mas-Coma explained that antibodies produced after vaccination persist only for a short time: in the case of Pfizer and Moderna – on average up to six months, and in the case of adenoviral AstraZeneca – about four months. The human body also produces memory cells that can recognize the coronavirus. However, due to the high infectivity of the delta strain and its ability to quickly infect the body, memory cells simply do not have time to work, they need some time to resume the production of neutralizing antibodies to achieve a sufficient level of immune protection.
The epidemiologist noted that the good news is that no coronavirus strains have been identified in recent months that are more contagious than the delta variant. “So at the moment I do not see the risk of another big wave of disease, but, of course, the number of cases will continue to grow if people do not understand that this pandemic is far from over, and that individual measures must be taken to avoid infection,” Mas-Coma emphasized.
On November 1, it became known that the total number of victims of the coronavirus pandemic in the world exceeded five million. According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 247 million people worldwide are infected with the COVID-19 virus.
