CNCAV sends a very serious warning to Romanians regarding the problem of disinformation that comes through television, Facebook, even from doctors who should tell people how to protect themselves most effectively against the Coronavirus during this period.
"To read! "A wrong piece of advice given on TV can make the difference between a patient's life or death. When the wrong advice comes from a doctor, the impact is very big." Costel Atanasiu, virologist researcher in the USA
"We have doctors who recommend natural treatments against SARS-CoV-2, we have doctors who argue with their patients who have been vaccinated, we have doctors who put up posters in villages urging people not to get vaccinated.
How can we be surprised that some simple people from the country think that they can treat COVID with garlic? Under these conditions, I am surprised that we have a percentage of 40% vaccinated.
Things are better in America, but much worse than other first world countries. The vaccination rate is a little over 60%, which is a far cry from the 80-95% vaccination rates we see in Western Europe. There is also a lot of anti-vaccinist propaganda here, I could even say that this is where many of the conspiracies you read in Romania originate.
I was very unpleasantly surprised to see so many doctors doing nasty anti-vaccine propaganda on TV and online. If I had such a leadership position, I would not allow any doctor to speak on television until he had established himself with a thorough knowledge of virology, immunology and vaccinology. One wrong piece of advice given on TV can make the difference between life and death for a patient. When the wrong advice comes from a doctor, the impact is very high. The second measure would be to increase the medical staff. We have more beds for nothing, if we have the same number of medical personnel. Where would I get this medical staff? From the faculties of medicine.
It is hard to predict when the pandemic will end. Last year at this time, we hoped that the pandemic would end by the end of 2021. We thought that once the vaccines appeared, 70-80% of the world's population would be vaccinated and thus we would quickly reach that collective immunity. Unfortunately, the vaccination rate was much lower, the virus flew freely and had time to produce new variants. Let's see how this wave will end and if the Omicron variant will be the last important variant. From a medical point of view, I suspect that health authorities in all countries will increase the stocks of masks and basic medicines, invest more in building new hospitals and equipping them. It is possible that some specialties that do not require consultation with the patient, such as psychotherapy, are conducted predominantly online. In the end it will be fine, humanity will overcome this difficult test and let's hope it will learn something from this pandemic." Costel Atanasiu, virologist researcher in the United States of America."
