Filenews 27 July 2021 - by Marilena Panagi
In an article, the head of the Scientific Advisory Committee Konstantinos Tsoutis spoke out, stressing that, "we always find scapegoats" and "we do not learn from our mistakes" and putting everyone before their responsibilities argues that "we seem not to want to realize that the pandemic has unexpected outcomes, that you can't predict, only to try and prepare".
The article by the head of the EES, entitled "Time to see the truth in the eyes", was published on Saturday, on the page of the Federation of Patients Associations of Cyprus on Facebook, "Let's Discuss It... is simple" and then went around the internet causing various and different reactions.
"Restricting and closing sites does not bring any real effect unless we understand the consequences of our choices and actions to keep the restart safe. We opened and had to close again three times. We opened (again) on May 10; June 20th started a flare-up. In less than a fortnight, the number of hospitalised patients tripled. The most important chapter for our future, our schools, have been damaged for two years in a row, and they open in September. If we want to keep our children safe, let us put aside micropolitics and set common goals."
«(...) Above all, we have said that the pandemic will not disappear and a social contract is required between all in order to have a safe and functional everyday life," he says, adding: "On the contrary, what we are seeing is: continuing social racism and finding scapegoats: in the beginning it was the Chinese, then the 'cases' happened, then the tourists became, then they became the Lemesian, then they became the schools, then they became the young, now they became the unvaccinated"
"What we see," he says, is "not learning from our mistakes and repeating them: Three lockdowns, three phases of relaxation that brought uncontrollable flare-ups, meeting places putting profit above the protection of the whole, people ignoring basic individual protection measures because they "got tired''. We do not want to realize that the pandemic has contingencies, that you can't predict, only to try and prepare: we have always known about the risk of mutations; vaccines are better effective than we expected, even if we notice a decline in effectiveness after some time and against mutations. Do not understand that everything is done so that people do not die and that the health system is not loaded to the point where it cannot serve the emergency room (not only COVID-19 but also others)".
Continuing describes the situation as it is today:
"We have 1000 incidents a day. 3% of cases require hospitalization: these are currently 30 people a day with shortness of breath who will need oxygen. Most are aged 40-60. Because they get infected by the younger ones. Because they are less vaccinated (while >60 are more vaccinated). 8-10% of hospitalisations enter ICU: these are 2-3 people a day. Half of ICU die – so 1-2 people/day. Some people die before they get to the ICU. The average age in hospitals has fallen. So we're going to start seeing young people die. Not because Delta is more deadly, but because we have more incidents every day. These numbers to think about when we see the daily announcements (for those who see them anymore) and translate them into people.
The health system has limits, whether we're talking about beds, equipment, or personnel. If you choose to increase COVID-19 segments by closing other sections, there will be people with problems that will not be served (...).
And it indicates:
- "Primary health care needs support.
- Personal doctors need constant information.
- Specialist doctors need to strengthen personal physicians.
- The OA needs to be more flexible.
- Associations/organisations must understand their responsibility and become flexible, both for organisation and for misinformation.
- Private hospitals need to put aside profit and support the national health system and our patients"
It does not fail to attribute responsibilities:
"The tracing has collapsed. Not because it doesn't have people, not because it is not an automated procedures, but because we don't help them to help us. We've been accusing them for a year and a half of not calling in time, of giving confusing instructions. Why are we justified in not knowing the three main things we need to do if we are a case or a contact?"
"There are places that are a time bomb, that have contributed greatly to the outbreak we are going through. (...) It is time for everyone to understand the extent of their responsibility."
"Closed structures are full of vulnerable people who simply need care. And because this is the case the environment (...) needs regular laboratory testing, serious and continuous surveillance and not press releases to rejoice, direct tracing and interventions".
The pandemic, "will not end''. We will erase it when we have built enough immunity, either physically or through vaccinations, as was the case in previous pandemics. We don't know when, since a year and a half later and we didn't learn to do the basics either, allowing the pandemic to set us its own course."
For vaccines, polarisation and individual responsibility
"Of course we will see immunity fall, first in the elderly and immunosuppressed" As far as vaccines and vaccination are concerned, Mr. Tsoutis states in his article: "Vaccines naturally help: above all they save lives. Anyone who questions it reads selectively. Whoever's fighting them takes lives. Of course the vaccinated get stuck; immunity from vaccines is not 100%. Of course we will see immunity fall, first in the elderly and immunocompromised, since they probably did not respond adequately in the first place. Of course we don't know if or how many doses we're going to need; we once didn't even know about MMR, hepatitis B, influenza, DTP (...)'.
"The vaccinated get infected and transmit. Less so, but when you have a strain with R0 6-8 (=huge), no matter how much you reduce communicability with vaccination, it remains high. So the vaccinated are not completely free from the obligation to watch, to watch their contacts, to test. COVID-free sites make us think that the risk is zero after vaccination, but they are not at all so and ideally, COVID-free should require day tests. The unvaccinated are most at risk. And because they don't have vaccine protection and because we have between us a strain that's transmitted at least twice as easily as last year. Among the unvaccinated, those most at risk are the unvaccinated elderly and the unvaccinated with chronic health problems (...)'.
"Polarization, tension, characterizations, hate culture certainly don't help. If you want to assert your rights, first behave maturely and responsibly and contribute to the right to health for all," says Mr. Tsoutis.
