While many countries struggle to gain access to vaccines for everyone, the Republic of Moldova wonders if the people will want to get a vaccinate. The myths and concerns and other aspects related to the vaccination process were discussed in the second episode of the podcast “This is how it is!” – a special project of sic! The edition had as invitees Stela Bivol, director of the Center for Health Policies and Studies, and epidemiologist Alexei Ceban, one of the coordinators of the vaccination campaign in Moldova, IPN reports.
The second episode’s moderators, Victoria Coroban and Andrei Lutenco, learned from the interlocutors that all the COVID-19 vaccine approved until now are safe and efficient, while the concerns are unfounded. This is what doctors and the scientific community say. Even if a vaccine cannot be 100% efficient, it can ensure protection from serious forms of the disease and complications. The vaccination against COVID-19 is recommended even to those who had the infection as the immunity ensured by the vaccine lasts longer and protects against more strains.
Polls show that one third of the Moldovans want to be vaccinated. Stela Bivol, of the Center for Health Policies and Studies, said the Republic of Moldova until recently was considered a champion in immunization. Even if the vaccination rates, primarily among children, remain high, the anti-vaccine sentiments during the past 5-10 years have grown, especially among the urban population.
The invitees refuted some of the most spread concerns about immunization in general and COVID-19 vaccines in particular. As fear often derives from ignorance, epidemiologist Alexei Ceban explained how a vaccine works based on the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine. He said that a protein from the body of the virus is isolated. This coding sequence is only a minuscule part of a minuscule virus and it cannot cause infection or modify the human genome. Instead it warns the antibodies and these remain on the alert for a period.
The COVID-19 vaccines appeared in less than a year of the start of the pandemic. This seems suspiciously fast. The response is simple. In this extraordinary global crisis, the mobilization of resources – human, financial and of other kinds – was also extraordinary. No testing, monitoring or approval stage was skipped. Parallel work was done on some of the processes: during the clinical trials on tens of thousands of people, the developers were already thinking how to increase production capacities.
The full podcast can be listened to online. The project is financed with the grant provided by Soros Foundation Moldova from the “Phase II COVID-19 Response” Reserve Fund for assisting the Republic of Moldova in fighting the spread of the novel coronavirus.
