Romanian physicians plead for vaccination
Romanian physicians once again call on people to get vaccinated, as the country struggles with the pandemic
Eugen Coroianu, 14.10.2021, 14:00
We
are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the surge in COVID-19 infections,
both among the general public and among healthcare staff. The past few days
have showed us a healthcare system stretched to its limits, especially in the
units treating COVID-19 patients, reads an appeal signed by the Bucharest
Physicians College, urging people to get the vaccine and comply with protection
measures.
The
call comes at a time when Romania is struggling in the grips of the 4th
wave of the pandemic, with a highly contagious Delta variant and with only
around 30% of its population vaccinated-the second-lowest level in the EU. Romania
is also substantially below the worldwide vaccination rate of 45%, although it
has enough doses of Pfizer, Moderna, Astra Zeneca and Johnson&Johnson
vaccines, received through EU support mechanisms.
In
fact, some of these vaccine doses have been resold or donated to other
countries or even disposed of, because they had reached their expiration date. Meanwhile,
hundreds of people die every day, hospitals are overcrowded, and intensive care
units are fully occupied.
We
witness tragedies every day: patients who die, families suffering, physicians too
exhausted to stay standing, patients and healthcare staff infected with SARS-CoV-2
in need of medical care. And their number is very large. Faced with this
dramatic picture, we believe the low vaccination rate among people is, perhaps,
a failure in terms of the confidence that the public should have in the medical
personnel, the appeal of the physicians in Bucharest also reads.
They
also reiterate that science and evidence-based medicine state, as reference
international healthcare institutions confirm, that vaccination is one of the
major instruments for the efficient management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The
document also states that, while indeed vaccinated people may catch the disease
or have severe forms of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the proportion of such cases is a
lot smaller than among unvaccinated patients. In fact, the example of countries
with high vaccination rates is taletelling in this respect.
Every
day we talk to fellow doctors who tell us they have no solutions. Young patients
die, children get to intensive care units, people with and without
co-morbidities lose this battle. We are at a crossroads, and I believe only
though a joint effort will we be able to curb this trend. Science tells us
today that vaccination and compliance with protection measures enable us to
fight this pandemic more efficiently, reads the document signed by physician
Cătălina Poiană, Ph.D., president of the Bucharest Physicians College. (tr.
A.M. Popescu)
