Corona virus – flu: What is the case with vaccinations – Who should get them

Professor of Pulmonology and Intensive Care, EKPA, Theodoros Vasilakopoulos, speaking on the ERT NEWSROOM show, and journalists Stella Papamichail and Giorgos Siadimas spoke about the vaccines against the coronavirus and the flu.

As he said “many studies have shown that we can do them simultaneously on the same day. One in one hand, the other in the other hand. The effectiveness of vaccines does not decrease if we do them at the same time, nor do complications increase. In fact, let me tell you that if someone is unlucky, for example, and gets a fever after the flu vaccine or a fever after the coronavirus vaccine, doing them at the same time, they will get a fever once.”

At another point, Mr. Vassilakopoulos explained that “it doesn’t mean that if I have a fever, my body reacts well and I will have an immune response, while if I don’t have a fever or a symptom doesn’t get better, let’s say it’s an immune response and I’m not protected. It doesn’t matter what little side effects we get.”

“I get the flu vaccine every year since I became a doctor. It would be very psychologically strange to say to myself “I’m going to get the thirty-third dose of the flu shot”. So every year I get the new, brand new flu shot, which is annual, which is updated every year, it changes to cover the strains that are circulating. So every year I get the flu vaccine,” he emphasized and added that “my son, thank God, is a very healthy 13-year-old child, he gets the flu vaccine from six months old, based on the recommendation of the American Pediatric Society, which says it is good, not necessary, to get a flu shot.

So here now we’ve reached a situation where some groups of people definitely have to get the vaccine, it’s mandatory for them to get the vaccine. No it is mandatory in the sense of mandatory, don’t get me wrong, it is necessary for their health to get the vaccine so they are the elderly, those who are over 60, those who have underlying diseases. And some, all the rest, it would be very good to get the vaccine for both the coronavirus and the flu. Let me tell you that vaccines are made to protect us and reduce the chance that if we get infected we will get seriously ill. Regarding the coronavirus, I should say that last week, when we had a relative decrease in cases, we were under a thousand hospital admissions, but we had 63 deaths and every week we have been losing an average of 50 of our fellow human beings for many weeks now. So together we must do our best to reduce these losses.”

In closing, Mr. Vassilakopoulos emphasized that “the elderly will take the enhanced flu shot, I emphasize the enhanced flu shot that is prescribed by a doctor”.

Source: ERT

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