300,000 COVID Vaccines Ordered from the European Union

Hungary Today 2023.10.11.

Hungary has ordered 300,000 doses of COVID vaccines, the same amount as the European Union quota reserved for the Hungarian population, virologist Miklós Rusvai told Hungarian channel ATV News.

He noted that this is a new type of vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, of which the European Union has ordered 10 million units, writes Világgazdaság.

The virologist highlighted that the vaccine was developed against the Omicron variant that caused the epidemic earlier, but he added that

it also protects well against the Eris and Pirola, two sub-variants of Omicron that are currently present.

The virologist could not provide information on when these vaccines might arrive in Hungary.

It would mostly be up to the opinion of medical professionals, vaccinators, whether to take a fourth or fifth vaccine now that COVID is making a comeback worldwide. The National Center for Public Health and Pharmacy has recorded that one of the new variants, Eris, has appeared in our country, with a higher rate of transmission and faster spreading than previous variants, but fortunately the likelihood of severe disease is extremely low.

The variant officially called EG.5, more commonly known as Eris, and already the Pirola variant, code-named BA.2.86, are also infectious: the former has been detected in more than fifty countries, the latter in 15. Photo via Pexels

“Now that the cool weather has arrived, there are more and more cases of colds again,” emphasized Miklós Rusvai, who nevertheless believes that there is no new epidemic wave in the pipeline.

As the population has acquired partial immunity to COVID, Rusvai would recommend booster vaccination only for at-risk groups.

“I think it is more important to vaccinate against the flu, especially for the risk groups, i.e. the elderly, people with severe respiratory diseases, those who are undergoing some kind of immunosuppressive treatment or have cancer, and very importantly, a group to be highlighted are pregnant women,” concluded the virologist.

Fact

Experts have been stressing the importance of taking vitamin D in connection with COVID. Studies show that vitamin D supports the immune system and may reduce the chance of developing COVID and improve the course of the disease. Researchers at the University of Chicago School of Medicine have found a link between vitamin D deficiency and the risk of getting sick from the virus. The researchers studied 489 patients at the hospital and observed that patients with vitamin D deficiency were almost twice as likely (1.77 times higher) to get infected with a new case of COVID than patients with normal levels of vitamin D. For vitamin D supplementation, 2,000 international units (IU) per day are recommended for a healthy, normal-weight adult from October to March.

New COVID Variant on the Horizon

The symptoms are not as severe as earlier variants, but it is spreading faster than the a previously rapid omicron variants.Continue reading

Via Világgazdaság, Featured image via Pixabay