«Coronavirus has not become more aggressive for young people, but to protect older people more effectively, the burden of the wave is shifting to younger ages. This shift is not strong in Greece. I would not want the average citizen to feel fear that young people are dying,» Ioannidis said on MEGA's «Sociia Ora» - a fact that caused a surprise as they suddenly decided to call him while all this time his views were never repeated.
As he explained, vaccination will not stop the epidemic, which can be seen in many countries, such as England.«The vaccine is a useful weapon, it is just not the only one. Vaccination has the advantage of protecting you from serious disease. This benefit exists regardless of age, but is more pronounced quantitatively as we go into older ages. Vaccination does not stop the epidemic wave, as seen in England.» the professor stressed.
Dr. Ioannidis once again appeared to be totally opposed to the compulsory vaccinations, which, as he stressed, brings the opposite results. «Fewer deaths would occur if vaccination coverage was higher in older age groups and the vulnerable.» stressed and noted that what needed to be done was to strengthen the health system. Of course, the government never focused on hiring permanent doctors and strengthening hospitals with ICUs, rather than followed the lockdown tactic of shutting people down in their homes and letting the country's economy collapse.
«A pandemic is a marathon, it's not something we do in sprints, nor is it something we do in a ditch. At some point in all marathons, evening arrives and it's over. In Greece many people have stayed in the middle of the marathon. We are in the same society, whoever is lost, is lost for everyone,» he added.
In fact, the professor sounded the alarm about influenza, which has come back to the forefront and, as he said, is more dangerous than coronavirus: «Every virus has its own space. The year we had the flu almost disappeared. It may come back, it's already coming back it seems, we don't know its intensity. The flu on average is more dangerous than the coronavirus.’ he said, adding that every year almost 700,000 people lose their lives to the flu virus.
Commenting on yesterday's statements by Maria Theodoridou that children transmit the virus and are «reservoir of new mutations», the professor noted: «This means that when you have active continuity in the epidemic wave, the virus has opportunities to create new forms. The virus makes mistakes. These mistakes mean that it is more aggressive or tolerant».
According to Dr. Ioannidis, some countries in Western Europe may have gotten rid of the virus, but here in Greece, the virus is still present.a we will suffer again this winter, because of the problematic management followed by the government. In fact, as he said, the country should not go into a new lockdown.
