Update – 08/12/2021
December 8, 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 978,402. 99 new deaths were reported raising the total number to 18,815. The number of patients treated in intensive care units is currently 697. 7,009 new cases were announced yesterday in Greece. 2,156 of the new cases were found in the Attica region and 1,048 new cases in the Thessaloniki region.
Almost nine in 10 (88%) people who have been vaccinated state that they will get a booster shot as opposed to just 8% who don’t intend to do so, either because they don’t think it necessary or because they are afraid of possible side effects.
The nationwide research conducted from November 5 to 22 by the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (under the auspices and sponsorship of the Hellenic Association of Pharmaceutical Companies), also showed that two out of three Greek parents have not vaccinated their children against Covid-19. Of these, only 33% say they plan to do so.
The study found that 74% of the adult population has been vaccinated for Covid and 43% for the flu.
A major British study into mixing Covid-19 vaccines has found that people had a better immune response when they received a first dose of AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech shots followed by Moderna nine weeks later, according to the results on Monday.
“We found a really good immune response across the board…, in fact, higher than the threshold set by Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine two doses,” Matthew Snape, the Oxford professor behind the trial dubbed Com-COV2, told Reuters.
The findings supporting flexible dosing will offer some hope to poor and middle-income countries which may need to combine different brands between first and second shots if supplies run low or become unstable.
“I think the data from this study will be especially interesting and valuable to low- and middle-income countries where they’re still rolling out the first two doses of vaccines,” Snape said.
“We’re showing… you don’t have to stick rigidly to receiving the same vaccine for a second dose… and that if the program will be delivered more quickly by using multiple vaccines, then it is okay to do so.”
If the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is followed by a Moderna or Novavax shot, higher antibodies and T-cell responses were induced versus two doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford, according to researchers at the University of Oxford.
The study of 1,070 volunteers also found that a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine followed by a Moderna shot was better than two doses of the standard Pfizer-BioNTech course.
Pfizer-BioNTech followed by Novavax induced higher antibodies than the two-dose Oxford-AstraZeneca schedule, although this schedule induced lower antibody and T-cell responses than the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech schedule.
No safety concerns were raised, according to the Oxford University study published in the Lancet medical journal.
Many countries have been deploying a mix and match well before robust data was available as nations were faced with soaring infection numbers, low supplies and slow immunization over some safety concerns.
Longevity of protection offered by vaccines has been under scrutiny, with booster doses being considered as well amid surging cases. New variants, including Delta and Omicron, have now increased the pressure to speed up vaccination campaigns.
Blood samples from participants were tested against the Wild-Type, Beta and Delta variants, researchers of the Com-COV2 study said, adding that vaccines’ efficacy against the variants had waned, but this was consistent across mixed courses.
Deploying vaccines using technology from different platforms – like Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA, AstraZeneca’s viral vector and Novavax’s protein-based shot – and within the same schedule is new. The results may inform new approaches to immunization against other diseases, he said.
The study also found that a first dose of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine followed by any of the other candidates in the study generated a particularly robust response, consistent with findings in June.
The study was designed as a so-called “non-inferiority” study – the intent is to demonstrate that mixing is not substantially worse than the standard schedules – and compares the immune system responses to the gold-standard responses reported in previous clinical trials of each vaccine.
The number of people vaccinated against the coronavirus is rising and at an accelerated pace. The spike in cases, deaths and intubations, as well as expanding vaccination mandates affecting more professions and, now, a whole age group – those over 60 – have led to a significant rise in bookings for a first dose, indicating that an increasing number of people are setting aside their skepticism, out of fear of the disease or sanctions or both.
There is, undeniably, a hard core of people who refuse the vaccination. And, Kathimerini understands, many have turned to the monastic community of Mount Athos for advise, support or confirmation of their anti-vaccination beliefs.
Men – for men only are allowed to visit the monastic community in northern Greece – flock to monasteries and hermitages to seek the advice of the monks. Women, unable to make the trip, correspond.
One such monk, Efthymios, writes to a woman correspondent, presumably an abbess, that he finds it difficult to answer the “flood” of letters seeking his advice. Men line up every day, even before dawn, outside his cell to ask what should they do about the vaccine mandates.
Efthymios, respectfully called, like all senior monks, Geron Efthymios by the faithful – Geron meaning an old man and, therefore, a wise one – responds that vaccines are for those who are afraid. The faithful, he adds, know they have something stronger than the vaccines: the Holy Sacraments.
Efthymios is considered an especially important figure in the anti-vaccination movement, because he is regarded as the successor of a revered figure, Geron Paisios, who died in 1994. Besides providing advice in person, by phone or by correspondence, he propagates his views on the Internet via a web page maintained by an acolyte. This web page is considered especially aggressive against vaccination. There are many other monks preaching against vaccination and much more explicit in peddling conspiracy theories and railing against globalization and the Pope.
The monks’ influence extends beyond the laity: it is widely rumored that a bishop who recently made the news for refusing to be hospitalized because of Covid, relenting only when his situation became critical, is heavily influenced by his “spiritual guide,” an Athonite monk.
In more detail, the 7,009 new cases detected per Regional Unit:
