The Ministry of Health approved the use of the Sputnik Light single-component vaccine against coronavirus for people over 60 years old. About it reported Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko.
According to him, “Sputnik Light” is used mainly for revaccination, it is also recommended for those who have already had coronavirus to be vaccinated. The minister stressed the importance of vaccinations for the elderly, as they account for 85% of deaths from coronavirus in the country.
Murashko also added that today the vaccine is available in all Russian regions. Earlier, he reported that over 43 million people have already been vaccinated in the country.
On the eve of the head of the Center. Gamalei Alexander Gintsburg said that the collective immunity of Russians should be formed before the new year and “the whole problem is that people are more active and get vaccinated.”
Earlier, the head of the Oxford group for the development of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Professor Andrew Pollard, expressed the opinion that the delta coronavirus strain makes it impossible to form herd immunity from COVID-19, since it will continue to infect even people who have already been vaccinated. “The problem is that this virus is not a measles virus. If 95% of the population is vaccinated against measles, the measles virus can no longer be transmitted. The delta variant will infect those who are vaccinated. And this means that anyone who has not yet been vaccinated will sooner or later meet this virus. And we have nothing that can completely stop its transmission, ”said Pollard.
The vaccines that are already in use are effective in protecting against severe cases of coronavirus infection and death, but not infection, he said.
“The fact is that when these vaccines were developed, the task was to develop drugs that would protect against disease. Tests have shown that vaccines protect well against clinical disease. ” explained The Insider Vasily Vlasov, Vice President of the Evidence-Based Medicine Society, Professor at the Higher School of Economics.