Pulmonologists confirm that vaccines work

There is a growing debate about the impact of current coronavirus vaccines. After all, there are also many people who have been vaccinated in hospitals. Pulmonologists confirm today in NS It’s a huge misconception that vaccines don’t work well. Unvaccinated patients hospitalized with coronavirus are, on average, 20 years younger than vaccinated patients.

That’s the view of Leon van den Toren, president of the Physicians’ Association for Pulmonary Diseases and Tuberculosis (NVALT). In addition, healthy people who are vaccinated usually survive the infection very well and so far do not end up in the hospital.

The skepticism about vaccines arises because the number of unvaccinated and vaccinated people currently in hospitals is roughly equal. A few weeks ago, 80 percent of hospital residents were still not immunized. Van den Torn says these numbers are often misinterpreted. “This is exactly what we fear. These numbers are explained as follows: You see, it doesn’t matter if you are immune because the ratio is 50-50,” he told the newspaper.

widespread misunderstanding

“It really is a widespread misconception that a vaccinated person can just as easily end up in the hospital as an unvaccinated person. That is not the right picture.” Suppose: out of a hundred people, ninety have been vaccinated and ten have not. Five of these groups are in hospital. Then it looks 50-50, but in one group five out of ten and in the other group five in ninety. Vaccination still works very well, but its effectiveness decreases slightly over time.”

For every unvaccinated person admitted to hospital with a serious infection from COVID-19, pulmonologists believe “the person could have prevented it,” says van den Torn. “I find that very frustrating.”

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Written by: Marinka Wagmans