The professor of Molecular Virology and until recently a member of the scientific committee for the coronavirus, Dr. Leontios Kostrikis, opens his papers. Reveals the reasons that pushed him to resign from the epidemiological scientific team of the Ministry of Health.
As he explains in an interview with StockWatch , the Ministry left the committee on serious issues, such as the issue of vaccines. “We deal with issues without substance, while the important ones were left out,” he says characteristically.
In relation to vaccines, he considers that Cyprus wrongly chose the vast majority to be AstraZeneca and not the companies Pfizer and Moderna. “You are not going to war with the cheapest weapon,” he notes. At the same time, it calls on the government to diversify its vaccination policy and go out into the markets, to exercise its political power to obtain sufficient quantities of vaccines. He cites Malta as an example, which has diversified its quotas by securing more Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
“In science but also in politics, you are constantly redesigning yourself based on new data and findings,” he said, stressing and expressing the assessment that, as it seems, the rapid test system will collapse.
Mr. Kostrikis, in his interview, defends the vaccination coverage of the citizens because, as he claims, he prevents the transmission of the virus. It refers to the example of Israel where the transmission of Covid – 19 was reduced by 95%. “This is a nuclear explosion and no one in Cyprus took it into account,” he said.
He also correlates the epidemiological picture with the use of the mask and explains why with its application this year the flu and other viral infections disappeared.
The Minister of Health reverses the fire
He denies that the advisory scientific team was not asked about the issue of vaccines by the Minister of Health, Konstantinos Ioannou, responding to what the professor of Molecular Virology and until recently a member of the scientific committee for coronavirus, Dr. Leontios Kostrikis said in an interview with Stock.
Mr. Ioannou, who was called by the noon show of OMEGA “Information Now” to respond to Mr. Kostrikis' criticisms, commenting on his statement that “the government should proceed to redesign its government policy on the issue of vaccines” , he said that “I read in the interview of Mr. Kostrikis that if we asked the scientific team he would suggest that we get vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. First the advisory group was asked about the issue of vaccines and said that it was not within its competence, so I wonder why Mr. Kostrikis says that he was not asked, he probably was not in the meeting “.
He added that “we got the maximum number from Pfizer and Moderna based on the agreement reached in the EU, it was not possible to get more vaccines”.
He also turned his shotgun on himself when apprehended by a police officer on the porch of the house where the shootings took place. “The first contract offered to us since August was AstraZeneca” will we get it because can we get it from Pfizer in a month?
However, he declined to answer the question why Malta received more quantities of the Pfizer vaccine, referring to the Pfizer representative in Cyprus. He once again referred to the European Commission's directives and wondered if there was another EU country that had secured more Pfizer vaccines.
Mr. Ioannou also denied that the system of rapid tests will collapse, as Mr. Kostrikis states in his interview, saying that “rapid tests are performed to identify the people who are positive for the virus in time to prevent possible spread. In fact, some of the scientists, and this is written in the minutes, when asked last December about the rapid tests, they answered test, test, test… “he concluded.
SOURCE: https://www.stockwatch.com.cy/
At 58 points the rapid test check on Thursday
Concern about the increase in cases among students in Paphos
