Almost 100% of health professionals in Peru have confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine and understand that it is an important tool to fight the pandemic, said Arzobispo Loayza Hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) chief Josef Vallejos —
“I live day after day with my colleagues, and I had to craft the list of each one of those who will be vaccinated. I could tell you that at Loayza (Hospital in Lima), as in most hospitals, there is almost a 100% acceptance rate of the vaccine against COVID-19," he stressed.
Dr. Vallejos stressed the need for doctors and health professionals to protect and take care of themselves through the administration of this vaccine, he noted. This way, they will also protect their families and be able to better serve their patients.
"We are fortunate to have this vaccine, which allows a light of hope for the future," he said.
According to the physician, there are several cases of intensivist doctors who had to rent a place to stay temporarily during the pandemic so as not to put their families at risk of possible contagion.
Dr. Vallejos urged the entire population to be immunized to end the pandemic and requested citizens not to be fooled by false information about the "supposed risks" of the vaccine.
"At the end of the tunnel, a light appears and that light is the vaccine. I urge you to get vaccinated because it (the vaccine) is a tool that we have, not from now, but since last century, and it is the only tool that allows us to fight against this scourge that has been really very devastating," he expressed.
For his part, Dr. Mario Candiotti —an intensivist working at the same hospital and who was also immunized— said that health professionals, who have treated COVID-19 patients, were awaiting the arrival of vaccines.