Antibodies persist for at least nine months after infection
20 July 2021Ensuring access to innovative, sustainable and high-quality health care _ HORIZON
23 July 2021
Some welcome the recovery of the curfew as the "most drastic" way to stop infections.
Wear the mask on terraces, beaches and streets where passers-by meet people and expedite vaccination as much as possible in all age groups, but especially among young people with the ages in which the highest incidence of infections is concentrated. They are two of the "most basic" measures advocated by several Aragonese experts to stop a sixth wave that, unlike the previous ones, has risen simultaneously and very quickly throughout the Community.
The veterinary epidemiologist and professor at the University also views the curfew favorably. University of Zaragoza Nacho de Blas "as long as it is accompanied by a restriction on capacity and a reduction in the closing hours of establishments," he noted.
In his opinion, where "they are failing the most" is in tracing, a complex task due to the large number of contacts of the youngest people and the difficulty of reaching everyone when the affected person does not even know their identities after meeting them for a while. . "It's very difficult to break the chains of transmission," he said. For this reason, he was in favor of implementing "some type of entry and exit registration of nightlife establishments." "We don't know where infections are really occurring and this would be a way to have some certainty," he said.
The current regulation of the use of the mask seems to be is "what it should have been from the first moment" and the only thing missing "is to comply with it responsibly." Regarding the mandatory nature of the mask outdoors, the professor in Veterinary Medicine is more radical, Juan Jose Badiola. "The mask was removed hastily, I would have kept it until the end of July because it has proven to be the best physical barrier. The clearest example of this is the terraces, where people lower them without maintaining interpersonal separation. Waiting at a traffic light can easily turn into a crowd in which you have to be careful."he noted.
Also at the peak of the heat, he warned about the importance of wearing it on the beaches and demanded that "strict compliance" with health regulations be monitored in busy summer leisure spaces.
Badiola also defended the need to intensify PCR among the youngest and carry out "intensive tracing" to try to reach the largest possible number of contacts of each positive.
This veteran researcher acknowledged that "the magnitude" of this sixth wave was not expected. "with very striking figures" in terms of positives. An evolution that is largely attributed to a delta variant of the virus that is "very contagious, with a great capacity for reproduction that is even more intensified in the summer months" of unusual high mobility, which favors its rapid expansion.
"We are going after the virus."
To José Ángel Carretero, head of the pulmonology service Roy Villanova, the problem is that Aragón, like the rest of Spain, "is always lagging behind the virus." "We've had six waves here and it seems like we haven't learned anything."", he lamented. The key, in his opinion, is to take measures "to prevent the infection curve from starting to rise" once the first outbreaks are detected, not to act after the fact to make it go down.
According to Carretero, the only way to reverse the current situation is "prevention", especially while there is a significant number of people between 60 and 67 years old with a single dose of Astrazeneca.
He insisted, in this sense, on the necessary use of the mask "not only in closed spaces, but also outdoors when there are crowds of personnel." "And by crowds I don't mean a concert or the Eurocup, but to be sitting on a terrace. There, people are a very short distance from the other person and with their masks down. "They talk and laugh and facilitate the spread of the virus by aerosols," he said.
He was opposed from the first moment to the 'end' of the mask outdoors and time seems to be proving him right. "I still think the same thing, he shouldn't have retired," he said.
