Update – 06/10/2021
October 6, 2021
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As of the latest update by the Greek authorities, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 diagnosed cases in Greece 666,517. 34 new deaths were reported raising the total number to 14,991. The number of patients treated in intensive care units is currently 334. 2,876 new cases were announced yesterday in Greece. 527 of the new cases were found in the Attica region and 441 new cases in the Thessaloniki region.
The key Health Ministry agency responsible for Greece’s response to the pandemic has been appointed a new president following the resignation of Panagiotis Arkoumaneas last week.
Theoklis Zaoutis takes over as chief of the National Organization for Public Health (EODY) after meeting with Health Minister Thanos Plevris on Tuesday morning.
“The task ahead is tough,” Zaoutis said in comments to Kathimerini following the meeting, stressing that keeping the public better informed on the course of the pandemic is one of his top priorities.
Zaoutis is a professor of pediatric medicine at Athens University and an emeritus professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania, having previously served as chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital from 2014 to 2018. He was also one of the two final candidates for the post of director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in 2015 and is currently a consultant for the World Health Organization’s regional office for Europe in Greece.
He has served on Greece’s expert Committee for the Protection of Public Health – which advises the government on coronavirus policy – since the start of the pandemic.
There is no reason to believe that those who have until now refused to get a Covid-19 shot will at some point come around to the idea of getting a vaccine. They will never change sides. If what we have collectively experienced since February 2020 was not enough to convince them about the need to get inoculated, I can’t think of anything that could possibly have that effect.
A recent opinion poll conducted by Pulse RC for Skai TV explored the reasons behind vaccine denial. Some people said they were “worried about vaccine side effects,” some said that “vaccines are not effective,” some said they were “not worried about the coronavirus,” 11 percent cited religious reasons, and 5 percent justified their reluctance on health grounds. In what was the most unorthodox explanation, 19 percent said their refusal was “in reaction to the pressure.”
So that 19 percent view the existing situation as tyrannical pressure, to which they react by saying: “I will not get vaccinated because you keep telling me to do so!” In other words, they are fed up with hearing about the coronavirus, the vaccines and the scientific studies, and when they see an expert speaking on TV they just switch channels.
What is it they find so bothersome that they refuse to get the shots? Is it the dramatic calls and warnings by experts and state officials? Is it the warnings about the risks the unvaccinated face should they contract the virus? Or are they annoyed by the daily data about the fatalities and the number of intubated patients in ICUs (90 percent of whom are unvaccinated)?
I simply fail to grasp the fact that there are people out there who are so immature about health issues; people who interpret the drama of the pandemic as “pressure” and stubbornly dig in their heels despite the health risks for themselves and their loved ones. That said, I really do not think that these people would not feel “pressured” and would have lined up for a Covid-19 shot had there been no debate all these months about the pandemic, the vaccines, the resilience of the health system, the clinics, the doctors in the ICUs and the dangers of Covid infection.
Those 19 percent do not see themselves as a link in the chain of life; they do not understand that this interdependence is key in overcoming the pandemic. And the reason they do not see this is because they have no sense of social responsibility whatsoever. Their denial is a way of life; a political statement. It is connected to a more profound conviction that security, health and wellbeing are an individual affair; they are not concerned about nor do they depend on the wider community. Every time a key political or social issue is at stake, we can expect this egotistical cult to make up a meaningful chunk of the statistics.
In more detail, the 2,876 new cases detected per Regional Unit:
