Any conspiracy theory, fake news or myth circulated about the COVID vaccines are refuted by scientific truth and science gives substantiated answers, Associate Professor of the Pharmacy Program at the University of Nicosia, Dr. Christos Petrou, told Cyprus News Agency.

He noted that the vaccines are the only tool we have at the moment to fight the pandemic, adding that vaccination needs to be combined with other measures, until we have the capacity to inoculate the entire population and provide protection.

Replying to a question about PfizerBioNTech vaccines and Moderna vaccines, Dr Petrou said that there are no significant differences between the two and mainly have to do with storage and transport conditions as well as the time the second dose is given.

Asked whether scientists can be certain about the protection period people who are vaccinated can have, Dr. Petrou said that there is still no data determining exactly how long the protection lasts, adding that we need to wait for a certain period in order to be able to reach safe conclusions.

He also said that the new vaccines seem to offer protection from the new strain of the virus, pointing out that the mutations of the virus do not seem to dramatically change the efficacy of the vaccines. Dr. Petrou added that the mutations of the new coronavirus have been known for several months, and were certainly taken into account in the development of the vaccines.

Replying to another question Dr. Petrou said that it is still too early to talk about a return to normality, pointing out that a very high percentage of the population must be vaccinated in order to be able to return to fully normal conditions and this percentage should be around 70-80%.

He also said that it is important to vaccinate a very high percentage of people, possibly around 20% to 25% of the vulnerable groups or those at risk, in order to decongest the health system and be able to rethink some of the measures in place.