Health professionals, politicians call on people to get vaccinated

With Turkey gradually reopening and returning to normal after days of strict restrictions, health professionals, experts, politicians and actors have urged the nation to get vaccinated in a bid to tackle the pandemic.

"Nearly 40 percent of the patients admitted in the intensive care unit due to COVID-19 die," said İsmail Cinel, the chairman of the Turkish Intensive Care Association, warning people who declined invitations to get vaccinated with the data of the intensive care services across the country.

"Between 2 and 7 percent of those who contract the virus experience the disease very severely and end up in intensive care," Cinel said, adding that some of the survivors had to continue their lives as 'half-humans' as they recovered with reduced functional capacities.

Questioning that if it's worth taking such a risk, Cinel stressed that the people that end up in the intensive care unit might find themselves in situations suffering from organ dysfunctions after getting infected from COVID-19.

"They experience septic shock attacks with secondary bacterial or fungal infections at least once or twice during the intensive care unit. So even if they survive the coronavirus, they face other deadly diseases," Cinel noted.

He emphasized that everyone who is in line for jabs should be vaccinated.

"I got COVID-19 after I got vaccinated. The virus did not descend into my lungs and I survived the disease with normal pain and cough. If I hadn't been vaccinated, I would have had it worse," said Ali Özkaya, a lawmaker of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

 "There are currently three types of COVID-19 vaccines in Turkey; [people] can get whatever [jab] they want. But I would definitely recommend getting them...