Prof. Horban: We’ll get COVID-19 faster than the vaccine will protect us

– I would not count on this vaccine so much – Prof. Andrzej Horban, the prime minister’s chief advisor on COVID-24.

1. Prof. Horban: If the vaccine is available to everyone, it will not be until spring
2. There is a fear that we will get COVID-19 faster than the vaccine will protect us – he said in an interview with Konrad Piasecki
3. It is not so bad if a young man falls ill with COVID-19 and does not even notice that he is sick. The problem is with the older ones. 50 years is the limit where you can see the difference in mortality – he said
4. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

The guest of Konrad Piasecki, the host of the morning program on TVN24, was Andrzej Horban, the prime minister’s chief advisor on COVID-19. He referred to the COVID-19 vaccine project being developed by the American company Pfizer.

Recall: Albert Bourla, president of a pharmaceutical company, announced on Monday that the experimental vaccine to prevent COVID-19 has been proven to be more than 90 percent effective.

Researchers have assessed this based on preliminary research results and forecast that by the end of 2020 they will be able to produce 50 million doses of the vaccine, by 2021 this number could rise to 1,3 billion doses.

We get sick faster than the vaccine will protect us

“I would not count on this vaccine so much” – said prof. Horban and enumerated.

«25 new infections, real times five, that’s 125 new cases a day. There are 30 days in a month. 125 times 30 is four million people. Four months – 16 million. This is almost half of the population. “

He also added that “if the daily number of infections remained at the level of 25, 19 million Poles would fall ill with COVID-16 within four months.

As a result, there is a concern that we will get sick sooner than the vaccine will protect us. ‘

It’s not bad if a young man gets sick

“It is not so bad if a young man falls ill with COVID-19 and does not even notice that he is sick” – Horban analyzed in an interview with a journalist.

And he predicts that the vaccine “if it is available to all, it will be available in the spring.” Therefore, he expressed concern that “we will get COVID-19 sooner than we will protect ourselves from it with the vaccine.”

However, the prime minister’s advisor believes that everything must be done to protect vulnerable people, a generation that may fall ill and die.

“It’s not so bad if a young man falls ill with COVID-19 and does not even notice that he is sick. The problem is with the older ones. 50 years is the limit where you can see the difference in mortality. ‘

Because among patients aged 70-80, 12 percent of deaths are recorded. Over 80 – 25 percent. These people need to be protected ”- emphasized the guest of Piasecki.

Cooling down enthusiasm

Opinion of prof. Horban, delivered on TVN24, is somewhat dampened by the enthusiasm of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who called Pfizer’s first information about the effectiveness of the vaccine “very good, groundbreaking”.

“This is very good news that brings hope,” said the head of government.

Although he also made a reservation that it was not a vaccine “that we can distribute here and now”, he also expressed the hope that “we are closer to this moment than we imagined a week or two ago”.

Prime Minister Morawiecki explained that the government is already working on a distribution plan for the preparation. As he said, the vaccine will first go to seniors, medical and uniformed services.

“The vaccine will, of course, be available to those willing, but we want it to be available to a very large extent, so that everyone can get vaccinated as soon as possible,” announced the prime minister.

Read also:

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3. A Polish doctor working in Germany: here respirators could be given home to the sick