AstraZeneca Vaccine Researcher At Oxford Calls The Decreased Effectiveness Of The COVID Vaccine Is Only Limited To Laboratory Tests

Screenshot of young Indonesian researcher Indra Rudiansyah (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Young Indonesian researcher Indra Rudiansyah said reports related to the decrease in the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine against certain SARS-CoV-2 virus variants were only limited to laboratory research.

"What is done in the laboratory only captures a small part of the phenomena that exist in the body", said the ITB University alumni researcher virtually quoted from Antara, Thursday, July 29.

The Oxford University student who is part of the research team for the AstraZeneca vaccine clinical trial in Oxford added that scientists are still guessing what are the processes that form immunity in the human body after vaccination.

"We know that in the human body there are many components that play an important role. If anyone thinks that a new variant will reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine, because we do the study in the laboratory, but in the body, there are many things that affect the process of forming immunity", he said.

He said the publications regarding the decrease in the effectiveness of vaccines from several scientific journals were laboratory studies. However, expert opinion in general states that vaccines are still effective in forming a person's immune system from the risk of illness and death.

"But indeed there is a slight decrease in the ability to neutralize the virus by a few percent, for example, the Delta variant has more impact on AstraZeneca and several other vaccines, but all vaccines are still effective", said Indra.

The best vaccine is the vaccine currently available because it is a solution to achieve communal immunity, so people are advised not to be picky about the type of vaccine.

"Another effort to achieve communal immunity can be through natural infection. We just let it be infected with SARS-CoV-2, then get sick and recover and then have natural immunity", he said.

But that choice, said Indra, was very risky for the vulnerable population infected with the virus. "The death toll for this natural infection is higher", he said.

However, vaccination can give the body an early introduction to the virus. "People around who already have immunity so that the virus does not have a host and disappears from the face of the earth", said Indra Rudiansyah.

Another resource person presented at the event was Dr. Ursula Penny Putrikrisilia, a doctor and Director of Harapan Sehat Hospital, Bumiayu, Brebes Regency, Central Java.

She discussed why a person should be vaccinated because immunization is the most effective way to provide the most specific immunity.

She conveyed that what is put into the body is protein, in order to form immunity or repair damaged body cells. "When the vaccine is entered, our bodies are taught to handle and fight viruses that will enter later", she said.

He gave an example of many diseases that were wiped out on earth because of vaccination. For example, chickenpox, where if there is no vaccination, a person can be exposed to it many times and be dangerous. Whereas after there is a vaccine, someone even to death can not get smallpox

The important thing about vaccination, she said, is not only for the body itself but for other people. Vaccines that have entered a person's body lock the virus in the body so that the virus does not maneuver or mutate and infect other people.

"So that vaccination needs to be accelerated in order to quickly achieve 'herd immunity'", said Ursula Penny Putrikrisilia.