Pavlakis – Very good scenario for the pandemic to last until 2022

Giorgos Pavlakis, a doctor and researcher in the USA, described the World Health Organization’s estimate that the pandemic will continue in 2022 as a “very good scenario”, speaking to SKAI TV, and warned of the need for restrictive measures.

“Without measures it is impossible to stop the virus,” he warned.

“The WHO said that the pandemic will be extended for another year, it is a very good scenario, there are worse. The virus will remain endemic. We have a large number of cases that cannot disappear overnight,” he said.

As long as the number of cases is high, the virus will find victims among those vaccinated who will have a much smaller problem. “It was wrong to open indoor venues for vaccinated people since there are 3,000 and 4,000 cases a day. You need smart ways to restrict traffic, to block people from contact for a certain period of time is better done at the beginning of the wave than when the wave reaches its peak. The measures must be continued in parallel with the vaccines “.

“Parades and celebrations are important for society, but unfortunately in the conditions we live in today they have a cost,” the professor warned.

According to Mr. Pavlakis, unfortunately the stake in this phase is that Greece is not suffering what it suffered last winter. “It will be a pity. “When we start the season with 3,000 or 4,000 cases, while last year we did not even have 1/4 as many, how will things go well in November and December?” he wondered.

Vaccines alone will not bring about change, they will work for a long time, he explained. “It’s obvious that vaccines and measures need to work together. If vaccines did the job on their own, we would have another form in the epidemics of the past. Slowly the cases dropped and it took many years for the pandemics to stop with the vaccines”.

According to Mr. Pavlakis, measures are needed to prevent unnecessary contacts. “Delta is an easily transmitted virus. When the virus finds an opportunity, it strikes and we give it a chance to manifest itself, it will do it all winter if this tactic does not change. The virus has found another way to attack through the Delta strain, if it exists in a place it does not care much about masks on the chin nor that we wore a mask before going to the restaurant etc, it will strike. If there is a virus in a classroom it can infect many children, if it is in a church it will infect many churchgoers.”