HealthMin Rafila: Vaccination not to become mandatory in Romania, we need to work more on information

Minister of Health Alexandru Rafila declared on Sunday night for the private TV broadcaster Antena 3 that, from his point of view, vaccination will not be mandatory in Romania, mentioning that the obligation is not appropriate in our country and more work must be done on informing citizens, Agerpres reports.

"Vaccination is extremely important at the moment for reasons other than those in the beginning of 2021. In the beginning of 2021 vaccination, following clinical trials, it was recommended to stop transmission. At present, vaccination is recommended to avoid serious cases and to avoid deaths," Rafila said.

At the same time, the Minister of Health stated, answering a question, that vaccination will not be mandatory in Romania, from his point of view.

He added that he recommends vaccination, especially for those at risk, with chronic pathologies.

"Just as it is not documented, for example, that Arbidol would have any effect, there is no paper, not even one in the world showing that Arbidol could have a favorable effect on infection with the novel coronavirus, likewise there is evidence, every day, I have from the hospital, from the other hospitals in Romania, which shows me that 9 out of 10 people who are in intensive care or who die are unvaccinated. Then it is clear that if 9 out of 10 people are seriously ill or die that the vaccine has an effect. That's a provable thing. There are a lot of scientific papers on this. And obviously, in this circumstance, I recommend vaccination very seriously, especially to people who are at risk. Meaning what categories? Those who could do it because of their age, because of other diseases they have," minister Rafila added.

He also said that vaccine protection has decreased and it would be very difficult to vaccinate people three to four times a year.

The Minister of Health also referred to the wearing of face masks, mentioning that the simple medical mask FFP1 ensures a degree of filtration of about 80 percent of the virus, and the FFP2 of up to 95 percent.

He explained that as the transmissibility of the virus increases, the mechanical barrier should be as tight as possible.
"Whereas a cloth mask is very variable, first of all the quality and the degree of filtration. In addition, there is another element, if at the Alpha strain we had a basal transmission of 3, here we are approaching 15. And with the Delta it was 7-8. The cloth then protected to a small extent," Alexandru Rafila also explained.

The Minister of Health also noted that many people wears the mask incorrectly, "with their noses out", and, practically, the effectiveness of filtering in such a situation, and respectively the protection for the person they come in contact with, is null.