LAS President Ivars Kalviņš: I will get vaccinated if the vaccine is the way I want it
"In order for the vaccine to be stronger, it is necessary to add boosters, the effect of which on the body is unpleasant or harmful. Therefore, if we want to achieve higher efficiency, higher technologies must be used. Less is known on their impact in the long run," says Ivars Kalviņš, President of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. We asked him if he would get vaccinated against Covid-19.
I will definitely get vaccinated if the vaccine is the way I want it. The problem is that Covid-19 causes relatively high mortality in the elderly and those with multiple chronic conditions. There is currently no effective medicine for Covid-19, and vaccination is a way to protect your beloved parents, grandparents, from the disease. Key issue: these vaccines are not currently available.
Once available, the person vaccinating will have to choose between eight different types of vaccines, which are currently under development. Which of them will reach each consumer? Of course, we will only have access to vaccines that will be bought by the state. It is also not clear on what principles the country will choose vaccines.
Contracts are already being signed. The next question is: will the producer be able to produce in sufficient quantities to supply as many vaccines as the countries want? Therefore, the European Union and Latvia enter into agreements with several companies. It's a weird situation, but what can you do... If you don't pay the money in advance, you can't count on being able to buy these vaccines at all. We may lose money somewhere, but somewhere we will get a chance to get vaccines sooner. The government has to make political decisions in this case. It would have been good for the government to consult the Latvian Academy of Sciences when making these decisions.
Vaccines, which are currently close to registration, are relatively effective at 90-95 percent. This means that antibodies that are able to neutralize these viruses are produced in sufficient quantities and that the body's system is strong enough to produce them. That means there is hope. But we don't know how long these vaccines will work, how long the immune system will remember what this SARS-CoV-2 looks like. The purpose of the vaccine is to familiarize our immune system with the enemy, the Covid-19 agent, so that it can be destroyed.
Why are people suspicious of the vaccines?
There are opponents because vaccines do not always work as promised by manufacturers. I have also personally experienced this when I was vaccinated against certain infections. After the vaccination, antibodies have sometimes been nonexistent and have not developed. Why is that? Is it because the manufacturer has not produced them with high quality, or the required temperature was not observed during the transport and storage process? Some vaccines should be stored at minus 75 degrees and be transported at this temperature. This is quite difficult to ensure. People who get sick anyway after getting vaccinated become suspicious of the validity of the vaccines.
There is another thing that is important when vaccinating against many infections. For example, the flu. It is quite difficult to guess which strain of influenza will be dominant this year, against which people should definitely get vaccinated. Last year, there were 28 different types of flu. Which was the vaccine against it, most ordinary people do not know. If they get vaccinated and get sick anyway, nothing will force them to get vaccinated the next time.
When Operation Desert Storm took place, people were vaccinated against various infections. Some of them had far-reaching consequences. Many vaccines do not elicit an adequate immune response. In order for the vaccine to be stronger, it is necessary to add boosters, the effect of which on the body is unpleasant or harmful. Therefore, if we want to achieve higher efficiency, higher technologies must be used. Less is known on their impact in the long run.
One of the vaccines is based on a principle that has never been used before. We know something about traditional vaccines. Traditionally, this would mean introducing an attenuated virus. The question is how weakened would it be? Would it be too weak to induce any immunity? We cannot predict those problems. Of course, there are side effects. Any immunization causes even small symptoms because the body responds to the weakened virus in a similar manner as to the regular virus, which is a milder illness. What does mild illness mean in the case of Covid-19? Bone pain, muscle pain. There may be breathing problems. Each body's response to it can be completely different.
There is one more thing. This is not the first time have encountered covid type of viruses. There are seven circulating. Four of them are not as dangerous as the three, which include the Covid-19 virus. Our immune system recognizes such coronaviruses. Some people recognize it so well that it can also kill the cause of Covid-19. So there is confusion: someone who is vaccinated gets sick, but someone who has not been vaccinated does not get sick. The one who does not get sick says: “Why was it necessary to get vaccinated? See, I didn't do anything, and I'm fine."
Dispels myths about chipping
Keep in mind that for people with a chronic condition Covid-19 can be fatal. The craziest are the stories that people will be chipped with vaccines, then they will be numbered and counted. This is complete idiocy. Suppose someone inserted a chip under your skin to broadcast your location. Every transmitter needs energy. How long will such a battery last? Without a source of energy and power, nothing will work. People hear that and get inspired, thinking they can find something to blame. But it is possible that there have been more modifications of covidviruses than we know, and antibodies have developed against them. We only know about those we are interested in. A healthy lifestyle, not drinking, not smoking, normal weight, avoiding excessive fatigue and overwork, not using drugs - everything that normal people who want to maintain their health do also helps with Covid-19. Healthy people get over sickness easier. Physical activity, fresh air, positive emotions will work better than vaccination. Many people have an asymptomatic form of the disease. We do not know how many of these cases there are. When there was a crisis in northern Italy, three thousand people were tested. It turned out that there were ten asymptomatic Covid-19 cases per one person with symptoms. If we calculate that, then we don't really know how widespread this infection is. It has not hurt the majority. But for those with symptoms, it can be fatal, so it must be fought.
War of the microbe worlds
Based on recent studies, it has been observed that recurrent infections are due to the virus's ability to hide in the exosome. It's like a ball of fat in which the virus hides. Because the virus is masked by the parts of the cell's own shell, or rather by the balls of fat, the immune system does not recognize it. The virus circulates in a latent state. For example, if you catch a cold, then viruses, bacteria suddenly wake up from the latent form. Do you think a person is re-infected? No. The virus woke up again! The person did not get sick again, no. He was never healthy.
After four to five months, there will be a clearer picture of re-infection. If a person has a weak immune system, he will not get well because the body does not make enough antibodies to neutralize most of the active viruses. So antibodies are formed for anyone who recovers. We cannot say how much is needed without measurement. Answers will not come so soon. It may take years. The virus is changing. The body's reaction also changes. We usually forget that there are hundreds and thousands of viruses in the latent form in the human body. They cannot reproduce because they are controlled by the body. Our intestines, for example, contain two kilograms of bacteria. In that world of microbes and viruses, the same struggles take place as on the globe - for living space, for the opportunity to reproduce, for territory, for food. If we destroy some, then someone else will try to occupy the territory. But some other is fighting back.