Pulmonologist warns about the low uptake of the bivalent vaccine

Doctor participated in research and raises awareness about long Covid The vaccination campaign against Covid with the bivalent vaccine remains low across the country. According to the Ministry of Health, out of a target audience of 55 million people, only 12.5 million have received the bivalent vaccine by May. It is no coincidence that due to this low uptake, vaccination has been made available to the entire population over 18 years old who have received at least two doses of the Covid vaccines within a four-month period. Pulmonologist Jessica Polese, who participated in a study at the Federal University of Espírito Santo on Covid, along with other researchers, and contributed to the article "Pulmonary function and exercise capacity six months after hospital discharge of patients with severe COVID-19," published by The Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases, expresses concern about the low adherence to the vaccination scheme, especially considering everything experienced during the pandemic and the research she participated in, which has scientific data on the sequelae. "We refer to the sequelae as long Covid and we realize that long-term effects of COVID-19, especially pulmonary impairment, are common but not well understood," says the doctor. In the study conducted with patients who were in severe condition, symptoms were observed six months after discharge, as we published in the article, with information below," says the doctor. Conclusion Six months after hospital discharge, reduced pulmonary function and exercise capacity were frequently found, and more than a quarter remained symptomatic. Persistent symptoms and functional impairment suggest that sequelae and the development of Long COVID-19 are very common. Identifying these patients to provide the necessary healthcare is a challenging task, considering the large number of infected patients and survivors of COVID-19. Method The study was conducted to assess symptoms (standardized questionnaire), pulmonary function (spirometry), and exercise capacity (6-minute walk test) at 30 (D30), 90 (D90), and 180 (D180) days after hospital discharge of patients who survived severe COVID-19. We excluded patients with comorbidities prior to COVID infection in this follow-up. Results 44 patients were included, and 31 (26 men) completed the 6-month follow-up (mean age 53.6 ± 9.6 years). At D180, 28% still presented at least one symptom. The most common was dyspnea (17.2%), followed by cough (13.8%) and myalgia (10.3%). All spirometric parameters showed progressive improvement from D30 to D180. However, 16% maintained a restrictive pattern in the spirometry test, 44% showed desaturation in the 6-minute walk test, and 25% walked < 75% of the predicted value. For the doctor, several reasons lead the population to stop getting vaccinated: "Fake news is still being spread; the low incidence of the disease, which was precisely controlled by previous vaccination; and for some, the fear of getting vaccinated," she explains. "It is necessary to get vaccinated because of the protection that the bivalent vaccine offers against the original strain and the Omicron subvariant, the main virus still circulating in the world," points out Jessica.