Santander (EFE).- The president of the Spanish Society of Immunology, Marcos López Hoyos, considers that eliminating the mandatory nature of the mask in public transport has been “a good measure”, as well as maintaining it in health and social health centers, where “it has come to stay”, especially in times of greater circulation of respiratory viruses.
A week after the mask has gone into the background by ceasing to be mandatory on public transport, the scientific director of the Valdecilla Research Institute reviews in an interview with EFE the situation of the pandemic, which he sees in a phase ” of control”.
“It is still declared a pandemic, but it is in a control phase. There is no care problem in the country or in Europe. We know that the covid continues and it will stay with us, ”she explains.
López Hoyos points out that, “de facto”, the mask was no longer used, not only in transport, but also in spaces with “very poor” ventilation and full of people. “And without problems,” he adds.
When to use the mask?
The president of the immunologists, who is committed to treating SARS-CoV-2 the same as other respiratory viruses, insists on the use of the mask in social and health centers, due to the presence of vulnerable people, and also asks to wear it in case of respiratory symptoms .
After ruling out that they are going to take steps back in the covid restrictions, it does warn of the possible appearance of future zoonoses or infections. “We have to be prepared for the future, we have learned a lot,” she says.
The priority now for immunologists is to know what caused the pandemic and what variants can arrive.
“As the virus has mutated so much, it has always escaped the antibodies that prevent infection,” explains the expert, who advocates a nasal vaccine that can neutralize the virus’s route of entry, although “it is being very difficult” to obtain it.
It is also time, says López Hoyos, to decide how and how often to continue vaccinating. “We don’t know if there will be a change around the corner with a variant that gives us problems,” he says.
Investing in research. A lesson learned?
The president of the Spanish Society of Immunology asks to continue researching vaccines, even though the situation is under control, and not to abandon this work as when SARS-CoV-1 was overcome. “It will help us for other pandemics,” he says.
The process to arrive at the covid vaccine was “historic” because the same year that the pandemic broke out, it was already being inoculated. “Research has gotten us out of this,” he stresses.
López Hoyos is in favor of investing in long-term and multi-year R&D&ia because “it cannot be done like a building, for which money is put in for a year, it is raised and, if it is later abandoned, then it remains”.
He acknowledges that investing “in gray matter” has a cost that does not give “electoral gains or political fame”, but he insists that “the countries that invest in R&D+i are the ones at the forefront of the world”.
López Hoyos is aware that there is research activity “that goes to waste”, but it is necessary for there to be “good research”.
For all these reasons, he calls for Spain to reach 3 percent of GDP investment in research. “And let’s not cheat solitaire,” she abounds.
Will we live more pandemics?
Until the last century, at least decades passed between epidemics or pandemics, but in the last twenty years there have already been several such as SARS-COV-1, Ebola or covid-19.
The expert attributes it to the fact that the current lifestyle, in the context of a globalized world, makes zoonoses “very common”.
The next one could be related to the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, which is already a clinical problem today. “We have abused antibiotics,” she stresses.
The one that did not become a pandemic was the smallpox of the monkey, which is “forgotten,” says López Hoyos, because “it is an example of being vigilant against any infection.”
“There was a time when we were so obsessed by the covid that, in the face of any infection, such as hepatitis in children, a lot of alarm arose. The media have also been sensitized ”, he explains.
The flu is also being controlled “very well”. “The epidemiological surveillance system controls it very well, there is no problem,” he stresses.
Lastly, when asked how the toilets are three years into the pandemic later, Marcos López Hoyos assures that in his case he is “tired”.
“In three years I still have not had a rest, but we are already leading a normal life,” he indicates, before adding that the health personnel only ask “that their work be recognized” because they were the most exposed to the covid and “the first two years were very hard.”
Pablo G. Hermida
