After receiving the complete schedule of the coronavirus vaccine, there are many who wonder if we should get Covid tested again regularly, even if we are already fully vaccinated.
Others have doubts about the protocol to follow when testing positive and there are those who even continue to question the validity of vaccines. To resolve all our doubts, we have talked with Dr. Cristina Salazar Ramírez, a doctor at the Virgen de la Victoria Hospital in Malaga.
The tests that indicate infection do not vary with the vaccine
The highly contagious Delta variant has once again put doctors and scientists on the ropes. Although until recently the experts assured that it was not necessary to carry out regular tests to detect the presence of the virus once vaccinated, after the arrival of this strain everyone agrees that we should carry out a PCR as soon as they suspect that we are infected.
“The tests that mark infection (PCR and antigen tests) do not vary with the vaccine, it is absolutely impossible. Nevertheless, the tests that mark immunity, which are the antibody and serological tests, Yes they are altered or modified with the vaccine “, explains the intensivist.
It also states that the vaccines against Covid that are currently being administered reduce the degree of severity with which the disease occurs, but there is insufficient evidence that they prevent contagion nor that they eliminate the risk that a vaccinated person could infect others in the event of contagion.
Therefore, the expert recalls that diagnostic tests to detect the virus will always remain valid as necessary, even for those who have been vaccinated.
In this way, even if the coronavirus is contracted once vaccinated, the disease will course, most likely, mildly or moderately since we will have the immune system ready.
“If after receiving the dose or dose of the vaccine, it is positive in a PCR or an antigen test, it means that at that moment the person is infected. Could not give a false positive, because none of the vaccines that are administered allows the material that is introduced into the injection site to reach the nasopharyngeal mucosa. In short, it can be positive in the antibody test but not in the diagnostic tests, “he explains.
Vaccines save lives but do not prevent contagion
The situation has changed a lot. The expert reports that this year the level of infections has been much higher than last summer, even having vaccinated a percentage of the population. “That is why we say that vaccines save lives but do not prevent contagion”, qualifies.
“Without vaccines the health system would have collapsed again”
“Last year at the same time we still had a de-escalation plan and there was practically no mobility. Now that a number of measures have been removed, like the mandatory outdoor mask, the population has relaxed. If to this you add that leisure, mobility, the celebration of late events and, finally, the appearance of a much more contagious variant (which multiplies its contagion capacity by three) the result is that this year there are more infections than last summer“.
The doctor clarifies that it is true that there are fewer patients in hospitals and in critical care, since without vaccines the health system would have collapsed again. Still, warn that the current situation is still delicate both for patients who are admitted daily, most of whom are not vaccinated, but also for vaccinated patients who are admitted to critical care and for the professionals who continue to treat them.
The protocol to follow if you test positive
The vaccine does not affect the action protocol: “If you have a positive PCR, you are infected, it does not matter if you are vaccinated. Therefore, you will have to be confined for at least ten days. If you are asymptomatic after ten days, you can lift the confinement. If you are in close contact and vaccinated, you don’t have to be confined but you will have to do two PCRs: one at the beginning of the week and the other at the end of 7 days. “
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