The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s Project Ask the Doctor: Why Life Without Vaccine is a Lottery

In the framework of its project Ask the Doctor the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation continues to tell Ukrainians about the prevention and treatment of the coronavirus. Experts of the program’s live broadcasts, the country’s leading healthcare professionals with vast experience, answer questions from viewers and share information about the latest discoveries and trends in the fight against the pandemic.

The next guest of the project was a paediatrician, a Candidate of Medical Sciences, president of the Ukrainian-German Medical Association Andriy Penkov.

According to the doctor, if people have chronic diseases, they not only can, but rather need to be vaccinated.

‘The fact of people’s chronic diseases is a risk factor for severe form of COVID-19. That is why vaccination, though not 100%, but still protects patients, first, from contracting the disease. And secondly, it significantly reduces the risks of possible hospitalization and admission to the intensive care unit,’ explained Andriy Penkov.

The expert also debunked some myths about vaccination and noted that in fact life without the vaccine is a lottery:

‘Statistics speak for themselves. If we look at the number of deaths among people who have not been vaccinated and people who have been vaccinated, we can clearly see that the risk of dying from the vaccine is about 1,000 times lower than dying from COVID-19.’

Andriy Penkov also described the course of post-Covid syndrome in children and adolescents. The doctor noted:

‘There are studies suggesting that some children may experience symptoms of Covid even eight months after recovery. This phenomenon is called a long Covid. That is, during a long time they cannot fully return to normal children’s activities, like school studies or attending sports clubs/groups.’

He added that the post-Covid syndrome, although it is less common in children than in adults, can also be accompanied by headache, fatigue, episodes of rapid heartbeat, difficulty of breathing and etc.

The doctor advises to anyone who has experienced post-Covid syndrome to take into account their condition, follow a healthy diet and do not rush to overload themselves physically.

During the entire time of Ask the Doctor broadcasts, the content of the project on the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s digital platforms has been viewed 20 million times. The experts of the program’s life broadcasts were such famous healthcare professionals as a cardiac surgeon Borys Todurov; a cardiologist, an associate member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, a member of the European Society of Cardiology Kateryna Amosova; a psychiatrist, a Doctor of Medical Sciences, and a professor Oleh Chaban; the President of the Association of Anaesthesiologists of Ukraine Serhiy Dubrov, and other experts.

Video recordings of the program’s broadcasts with experienced healthcare practitioners are available for watching on the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s page in Facebook, and in YouTube.