Is there a relationship between alcohol consumption and the virus vaccine? José Joaquín Puello explains

José Joaquín Puello, director of Ciudad Sanitaria Luis Eduardo Aybar, affirmed that alcohol consumption has no relation to the vaccine against the coronavirus from a medical perspective.

“We Dominicans are characterized by the fact that they give us a fingernail and we take the whole arm. Now, from a medical point of view alcohol has nothing to do with the vaccine, not really. Now, people are told that if you have been vaccinated, try not to drink alcohol, because if you get a reaction from the vaccine, we don’t know if it is because of the drunkenness you had or if it is a reaction to the vaccine,” explained the doctor.

However, he emphasized that when a person receives the first dose of the drug against the virus, the organism starts its reaction, and “more or less 10 or 15 days after the first injection, the immune system already has enough defense…and we can resist it better.”

Interviewed in the program “Sol de los sábados,” which is broadcasted on 106.5 FM, he also clarified that, after a person is vaccinated, he can be infected by COVID-19.

“Of course they can. Because also, on the other hand, there are going to be people who are not going to be immunized and we know that the range we are talking about in epidemiological terms is between 5 and 10% of people who are not going to be immunized,” said the official, who is also a neurologist.

He added that when the second dose is applied, the immunity level in people aged between 20 and 40 years is 100%.

“In people between 40 and 60 years of age, it is close to 90%. And in people over 70 years of age, if they are infected, only less than 2% of them will have complications,” said Puello.

As to why children and adolescents “almost do not suffer from the disease,” it is due to a gland that corresponds to the center of the immune system, which changes when they reach adulthood.

In addition, Puello defended the application of the vaccine, considering that it is “highly effective.”

This Saturday, the Ministry of Public Health issued through the General Directorate of Epidemiology (DIGEPI) a warning about the circulation of new variants of SARS-COV-2 in the Dominican territory.

According to the institution, four variants of high epidemiological interest have been identified (B.1.1.7 (United Kingdom), B.1.351 (South Africa), P.1 (Brazil) and B.1. 617 (India)), due to their high transmissibility, severity, antibody neutralizing capacity and potential impacts on the effectiveness of vaccines with the coronavirus.