Why does COVID-19 vaccination not guarantee that a vaccinated person will not get infected? What is known about the disease today? These and many other questions were answered in the project Ask the Doctor of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation by Natalya Vynohrad, an epidemiologist, a Doctor of Medical Sciences, a professor, head of the department of epidemiology at Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University.

According to the expert, it is not unlikely that vaccinations will have to be done much more often than just twice.

‘This is a very important issue. It is bitter to say it, but countries that did their best for CODIV prevention and at the highest level, now have a higher incidence rate than before vaccination. How many times and what other vaccine to use? There are a lot of questions,’ Natalya Vynohrad said.

However, as the expert explained, one of the reasons for this is the peculiarity of the new disease.

‘The problem has not been studied all the way through. However, the main hypothesis today is that now this virus is outfighting us. It changes its properties very quickly and genetically new variants appear. And we run out of the letters of the Greek alphabet to name them,’ said Natalya Vynohrad.

The epidemiologist added that vaccination is not a panacea and it has not rescued any country completely.

‘We must minimize the risk of infection itself. This is the key idea. We know how to do it: not to go where there are many people, to use face masks properly, to air the premises and do wet cleaning. This way we curb the infective dose,’ the expert explained.

Natalya Vynohrad reminded that one of the main features of COVID-19 is the multisystem impact on human organs.

‘This is a question of post-COVID syndrome. There is the so-called long COVID, and people who have abnormalities or disruptions in functioning of certain organs are more prone to it. For example, those with chronic diseases. And treatment when many organs are affected is a very long process,’ said the expert.

During the entire lifespan of the project Ask the Doctor, its coverage on the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s digital platforms amounted to 16 million viewers. Earlier, the experts of the program’s life broadcasts were Borys Todurov, a famous cardiac surgeon; Kateryna Amosova, a cardiologist, an associate member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, a member of the European Society of Cardiology; Oleh Chaban, a psychiatrist, a Doctor of Medical Sciences, a professor; Serhiy Dubrov, the President of the Association of Anaesthesiologists of Ukraine, and other experts.

Recordings of the program’s broadcasts with experienced healthcare experts are available for watching on the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s page in Facebook and in YouTube.