During the new wave of the epidemic, the Christian weekly Družina talked to Dr Federico Potočnik, an expert and infectologist from the Celje General Hospital, who points out that the situation requires all our strength for the good of the community. It is time to turn on all the common sense we have and overcome selfishness, fears, and frustrations. “Whatever we have done as a society has led to the fact that today the covid situation is steadily deteriorating. The biggest reason for this is under-vaccination, which is due to a lack of good and reliable information. It is true that many students are already in quarantine, which is a shame. If everyone around them had been vaccinated, this would not have happened,” Potočnik described the “Slovenian problem” in the case of the situation in schools.
Dr Federico Potočnik says he is surprised that quite a few teachers are unvaccinated. “Especially those who spread weird conspiracy theories in public. Then what do our children learn? I would not want teachers like that in school. Fortunately, they are in the minority, most teachers are vaccinated and stick to the measures, because they are educated people who understand their mission,” said the infectologist in an interview for Družina, who believes that if people had an insight into what was happening in covid departments around Slovenia, they would not think long about vaccinating or not.
Since we currently have almost half of unvaccinated people in Slovenia, this, according to Potočnik, means that there is more than enough room for the virus to spread. Counting on that that more than a thousand people get infected a day these days, the deterioration will occur in a week or so. “If we know that we are admitting just under a fifth of patients with covid to the hospital, there will soon be almost two hundred a day and a few dozen dead,” says Potočnik about the inevitable consequences of the fourth wave.
As Potočnik pointed out in an interview for Družina, the virus cannot be avoided and eventually we will all be vaccinated or get over it. There will be no more people who will not come into contact with the virus: “The more we stick to the measures and the higher the vaccination coverage, the better times await us.”
Potočnik points out that it is true that even vaccinated people can get covid, but at least ten times less often, they also transmit the virus that much less. Even if the vaccinated person becomes ill with covid, the course will usually be easier. According to Potočnik, it is extremely important to know the following: there are virtually no vaccinated people in intensive care. Last year, people over the age of 80, as well as younger people, died as if on a conveyor belt, which was a really difficult experience for doctors, but this year we no longer see this in vaccinated people.
“It is a miracle that someone who could have been my grandfather can survive today, however, just last year a covid-19 diagnosis would have been a death sentence,” the situation is vividly described by an infectologist who has tweeted a lot in recent weeks about burnout among young doctors.
He also criticised Minister Poklukar, who did not take the Slovenian problem, the departure of young doctors, a fifth of whom had left in a few months, with the necessary seriousness. Potočnik also commented for Družina on the anger and aggression of the protesters against the government’s measures, which surprised him.
“These are not the people we meet every day in clinics, shops or at Mass. It is not about the left or the right, Catholics or atheists: these are angry people who firmly believe that doctors have conspired against them. Can you imagine how illogical that is? We study for thirteen years to help people. At this time, the salaries of young doctors are at the level of waiters, but are there still people who think we want to harm them?”
But apparently the thought among people that while browsing the internet they found something that all infectiologists of this world have overlooked or hidden is appealing. But such a thought is not only wrong, but, according to Potočnik, also extremely harmful.
You can read the entire interview with Dr Federico Potočnik, which was published on the web portal of the weekly Družina, by clicking on this link.
T. F.
