The will of the minister seems to be repeatedly at odds with the best understanding of both public health experts and hospital district executives, writes Annikka Mutanen, HS’s science journalist.
Family- and the Minister of Basic Services Krista Kiuru (sd) has recently repeatedly criticized experts and actors from the Department of Health and Welfare (THL), regions and hospital districts. He has put pressure on THL in vaccination decisions and criticized them for being too late.
Due to the omicron transformation, additional rates have now been given to third vaccinations. People over the age of 60 and those at risk can THL recommendation on Friday 3 to 4 months after the second dose. For other adults, the effect is started 4 to 6 months after the second dose.
According to THL, the protection of two doses against serious disease would still be good for them, but the effectiveness against self-infection is weak.
Read more: Minister Krista Kiuru: Emergency braking must be decided next week and restrictive measures must be significantly increased
Read more: THL recommends shortening the dosing interval between the second and third coronary vaccines, including
Where from Kiuru and THL’s experts have then disagreed? Mainly about what is effective in protecting human life and health.
Until November, the goal of the vaccination strategy was to reduce the burden of disease, prevent deaths, and safeguard the carrying capacity of health care. Kiuru changed his strategy so that now the goal is also to reduce infections. Speaking about the change, he stated that people not only want to avoid death but also get sick.
THL opposed the change in its statement saying that reducing infections as an independent goal does not make sense. During our lifetime, we get many different respiratory infections, including those caused by coronaviruses. Because vaccination does not prevent infection or transmission, the virus does not stop circulating.
So as long as there are hundreds of thousands of unvaccinated adults in the country, there will also be enough cases of the disease in hospitals. The heavier the rate at which non-vaccinated people become infected, the heavier the load.
Of course, it is logical that there will be no serious cases unless there are infections. Infections can be stopped, but they always start to pick up again when people start to get back together. Stopping shifts the burden of disease forward, but does not remove it as long as there are masses of susceptible people left.
When everyone has finally acquired immunity by illness or vaccination, the situation is alleviated. Even then, serious diseases do not go away completely, especially in the elderly and the fragile, for whom immunity develops less and for whom even a minor infection is dangerous.
THL’s position has been that vaccinations should focus primarily on the prevention of serious disease. This is where vaccination works effectively.
Ministerial the will seems to be repeatedly at odds with the best understanding of both public health experts and hospital district executives. He does not share the same view on the possibility of control measures.
Kiuru also requires additional efforts for tracking and testing. Last week, he unveiled a new strategy requiring everyone to test for symptoms. Tracing is also required to consider vaccinated and different exposure environments. Even the diagnostic director of the Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital districts Lasse Lehtonen considered the increase in testing to be the wrong solution.
Read more: Husin Lehtonen: Increasing corona tests is not the right thing to do now
Eight infectious disease doctors, on the other hand, had issued an opinion in preparation, with which the new traceability requirement is completely at odds. The statement was first covered by Iltalehti, which had received it with a request for information. The documentary is also in HS’s possession.
In the statement, doctors state that as infections become more widespread, the effectiveness of infection tracking is reduced. When a sufficient proportion of the infection chains cannot be broken, the work becomes useless. This situation has been around for a long time.
“Infection tracing cannot significantly affect the current epidemic situation, regardless of the resourcing of the trace. Infection tracking puts a strain on health services and exacerbates health care debt, ”doctors wrote on October 27th.
Their suggestion was that the tracing would focus on high-risk situations and quarantine mainly close and other close contacts with the infected person in the same household.
Omikron CONVERSION has turned the near-term outlook threatening. Due to the three times more contagious viral variant, the epidemic obviously needs to be curbed vigorously. It can only be done by restricting everyone’s contacts. Even vaccinated people infect the omicron so easily that the corona passport has no office. THL’s director Markku Tervahauta also has this position.
We are in a similar situation as when the pandemic arrived in Finland in March 2020. Then the whole country was captured. The goal was to slow the flow of the virus through the populationto accommodate all those in need of care in hospitals. The image of the infection curve, which had to be lowered, came to mind for many.
That’s when Krista Kiuru stood in front of the camera and said that the aim is to protect people over the age of 70 and the underlying patients.
“The rest of the population will then receive the coronavirus from the population base of a future epidemic,” he announced.
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We are in a similar situation to March 2020.
It was surprise that the virus stopped in the spring of 2020 so effectively. Indeed, the original form of the virus was less contagious than feared, and people were more resilient than expected.
The population did not yet have to accept the virus. Kiuru seems to have decided never to do so. THL experts and key infectious agents think it will be inevitable in the end, but much safer when vaccinated. The apparent retention of infections is a waste of common resources.
Kiuru and infectious disease experts both undoubtedly have a good goal: to overcome the corona epidemic. The views of the experts are based on training and experience in the field. Since Kiuru does not listen to them, the question arises as to whether he has other credible sources or whether his views are guided by future voters.
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