"Science Fights Epidemic" Season 2丨Academician Li Lanjuan talks about "Fighting Epidemic"③

As spring approaches, the recurrence of the epidemic has become a hot topic of public discussion. The fight against the new coronavirus epidemic has entered its third year, and it has reached a critical moment.

From the first season of "Science + Fighting Epidemic" to the second season today, the Zhejiang Association for Science and Technology has been taking action to prevent and control the epidemic. Facing new problems under the new situation, the Provincial Association for Science and Technology exclusively interviewed Academician Li Lanjuan.

ask

The State Council's Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism mentioned at a press conference on February 26 that more than 90% of the deaths in this round of Hong Kong epidemic were elderly people aged 65 and above, 91% of the deaths had not completed the COVID-19 vaccination (81% of them had not yet received the first dose of the vaccine), and the mortality rate of those who were not vaccinated was 18 times that of those who were vaccinated. What do you think of this situation?

In addition, some elderly people still have some concerns about getting the COVID-19 vaccine. For example, due to differences in their immune functions, the level of neutralizing antibodies produced by the elderly is lower than that of young people; some elderly people feel that they rarely go out and have a lower risk of infection, so vaccination is not very meaningful; some elderly people have many underlying diseases and are worried about adverse reactions after vaccination. What suggestions do you have for this?

According to the data released by the Hong Kong Center for Health Protection, there are two main reasons for the high number of deaths from the epidemic in Hong Kong: low vaccination rates and aging. Most elderly people over 60 years old have underlying diseases and their immunity is relatively weaker than that of young people. They are a high-risk group for infection with the new coronavirus. For infectious diseases, if you have underlying diseases, it is more likely to cause complications once infected. In the case of not being vaccinated with the new coronavirus vaccine, once infected, it is easy to cause severe illness or even death, which indirectly proves that vaccination plays a very important role in protecting the majority of susceptible people. After vaccination, the body's immunity is enhanced, and even if infected, the symptoms are relatively unobvious or even asymptomatic. Therefore, people who have not yet been vaccinated should complete the full vaccination process and booster shots as soon as possible.

The COVID-19 vaccine has been clinically verified to be relatively safe, and the contraindications to vaccination are relatively limited. Even if you have the "three highs" common in the elderly, as long as you keep your blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipids in a good range, you will meet the COVID-19 vaccination conditions. In addition, the COVID-19 vaccine has a very low incidence of "side effects" and small "side effects", mainly local side effects at the injection site, manifested as local pain, redness, and swelling, etc.; systemic side effects, such as fatigue, headache, myalgia, joint pain, fever, and chills. Most of these symptoms appear within a short period of time after vaccination and will gradually subside after two or three days, so there is no need to panic.

Source: Zhejiang Association for Science and Technology Popularization Department

Editor: Ye Yang

Art Editor: Zheng Nali

First instance: Zhou Yun

Second trial: Long Aimin