“Vaccinated and died?”: Doctors answered 7 arguments against the vaccine

About 40% of St. Petersburg residents by mid-November were vaccinated with two components of the CORONAVIRUS vaccine. Such a percentage of those vaccinated globally does not affect the spread of the infection, said experts at the Futuremed scientific and technological conference held in St. Petersburg. According to Apollinaria Bogolyubova, a molecular immunologist and researcher at the V. A. Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, the minimum immunization threshold to achieve herd immunity against the primary strain of covid-19  is about 65%, relative to the “delta” strain - more than 80%.

Almost a year has passed since the beginning of the mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19, but a significant part of Petersburgers still does not support the idea of ​​getting vaccinated against COVID-19. St. Petersburg employers talk about cases when employees quit and leave the area where mandatory vaccination has been introduced. Even during a survey conducted among Futuremed participants (most of them are doctors, infectious disease specialists, molecular biologists), it turned out that 17% of all conference participants are against vaccination.

At the discussion “Questions from “anti-vaccinators” to those who are for vaccinations”, the experts analyzed what arguments opponents of vaccination use when explaining their position, and brought counterarguments to them. It is noteworthy that none of the doctors dared to take the side of the “anti-vaccinationists”, the host asked the question on their behalf.

"UNCHECKED DRUG"

Argument 1: “Typically, it takes a much longer time to bring a drug to market—development, preclinical studies, long-term clinical trials, evaluation of long-term effects. And with pandemics, manufacturers are forced to bring drugs to market very quickly. Coronavirus vaccines are experimental drugs, untested, that will lead to serious consequences in the longer term.

Antonina Oblasova, biologist, DIRECTOR of the ANO for the support and development of vaccine prevention “Collective Immunity”: “There was really little time for testing. But, thanks to the development of vector technologies that were already in the country, it was possible to create a coronavirus vaccine in a few weeks. In a short cut, out of turn, vaccines have been (some are still being) tested.