The professor of infectious diseases, Erika Vlieghe, from the University Hospital of Antwerp, is an outspoken advocate of vaccination and is therefore very present in the mainstream media in Belgium.
Only two months ago, she had been concerned about the low Corona vaccination rate in Brussels and the rising infection figures there. She was therefore sceptical about easing restrictions on freedom.
And indeed, the incidence rates in Belgium are rising. They are higher than in the two neighbouring countries of France and the Federal Republic of Germany – with their significantly lower vaccination rates.
Now Vlieghe gave an interview to the newspaper De Standaard, where she had to clear up the narrative that “the fourth wave would become a wave of the unvaccinated”. This “notion really needs to be adjusted”, as the Swiss news portal Nau reports and quotes her:
Now we see what the residual risk after vaccination means in practice.
The “residual risk” apparently also includes the fact that many of the vaccinated Corona patients in the hospitals suffer from diseases of the immune system.
In Belgium, 74 percent of the population is vaccinated against Covid-19. Among hospital inpatients, vaccinated and unvaccinated patients are about equal; however, the trend for hospitalisations for vaccinated patients is increasing.
Despite these figures, Vlieghe remains of the opinion that the vaccines deliver what they promise. But they are no panacea, she has to admit. That is why she warned vaccinated people to “lull themselves into a sense of security”.