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‘And Then You Still Find Vaccine Deniers’: Mater Dei Emergency Doctor Breaks Down Malta’s Latest COVID-19 Surge

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Malta is going through one of 2021’s worst surges in COVID-19 infections, but if there’s one thing this year has taught us, it’s how much of a positive effect one simple variable like the vaccine can have on the grander scheme of things.

That’s exactly what one Facebook status currently making waves is aiming to highlight… and what makes it all the more important is it was written by one of Malta’s very own frontliners in the ongoing pandemic.

After yet another consecutive record for new daily infections was registered today, Mater Dei Emergency Doctor Luke Zammit took to social media to provide some much-needed context to Saħħa’s latest numbers.

In the status, Zammit compared today’s numbers – and most importantly hospitalisations – to those back in March, when active cases were nearly identical.

On 19th March, Malta had 2,898 active cases – extremely close to today’s 2,505. But while the islands currently have 40 patients at Mater Dei and five in ITU, Malta from nine months ago had 229 patients in hospital and 32 others in ITU.

In fact, the last time Malta had the same active cases we have today, there were six operational Intensive Care Units – more than one per person currently being treated at Malta’s ITU.

And that’s not all – every single day in March 2021, at least one COVID-19 patient in Malta died, with a total of 76 deaths being registered that month. Meanwhile, with three-quarters of the month already gone, there’s only been one death in December 2021.

So what changed?

Well, the answer is very simple in the eyes of Zammit.

On 19th March, only 42,557 people were fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That’s less than 10% of the total population.

Today, that statistic stands at over 90% of the total population. Beyond that, 175,395 people have already received the booster dose.

“And you still find people who tell you the vaccine doesn’t work and that we shouldn’t have taken anything,” Zammit ended his status.

Of course, even that isn’t portraying the whole story: with drastically lower hospitalisations and nearly no deaths, Malta is currently open for a large variety of seated and standing events, something which the island could only dream of back in March.

With yet another variable that should point at much more worrying current numbers (or at least similar, when compared to last March), it’s easy to see how and why the walls of every other anti-vaxxer theory start caving in.

In fact, Malta didn’t even allow restaurants to reopen until 10th May… a whole two months after the date in question.

Nine months later, a number of other variables have also been added to the equation.

There is, for example, the matter of natural immunity built throughout the thousands of infections since March that needs to be taken to consideration. And with the new Delta and Omicron variants wreaking havoc in the last months, the waters continue to get muddied.

But one thing’s for sure – with the same amount of daily cases and total active cases, Malta is fairing a whole lot better than it was the last time this happened… and the major difference is that most of us are now vaccinated.

And who else would be better poised to reach that vital conclusion, if not one of the island’s frontliners?

Share this post if you agree with Luke Zammit’s status and think more people need to read it.

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Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).

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