[Newmag Summer Fest] Literature and the Pandemic. How Isolation affected the Literary World and How to Assist in the Fight Against Covid (photos, video in Armenian)

In Deadly Choices, infectious disease expert Paul Offit referred to the false claims that people die or become disabled after being vaccinated. A year after the publication of this book, the world unanimously began to fight against Covid-19, and now a big amount of the population fights against vaccinations.

Why is the world fighting against vaccinations, instead of fighting against pandemics? Hovakim Zaqaryan emphasizes that in the last century it has been proved several times that the only antidote against such pandemics is the mass vaccination. “If the vaccination is not done fast enough, or if the mass population is not vaccinated and only 20 percent of the population got the vaccine, the whole process of vaccination becomes inefficient.”

Can vaccines be dangerous to human health or cause death? The virologist notes that all medicines and vaccines, including the coronavirus vaccine can have side effects, because those are chemicals. Ani Kochar, who works in the field of healthcare in Germany, has found the reason why people avoid getting vaccinated in Armenia. “From the beginning, the fight against the pandemic in our country was not as widespread and strict as, for example, in Germany. Strict measures are the only effective way to sober up the population.”

So how should people sober up? There have been numerous cases of death and people still don’t want to get vaccinated. Writer Harut Kbeyan believes that vaccination should be compulsory. At this moment only a few percent of the population is vaccinated. These numbers are not encouraging.

Cardiologist Tatevik Hovakimyan shares Paul Offit’s observations: “I suppose this low level of vaccination is largely due to the skepticism of the people and the high level of misinformation that is filled in our heads with all sorts of information channels today.”

At this point, when the strains of Covid-19 are increasing, the news about possible restrictions and isolation terrify people. In the last year, the pandemic has changed people's lives, ideas and many have even found a new profession or occupation. That’s what the Italian physician and author Paolo Giordano did. While in isolation, he wrote the “Nel Contagio” book. The book includes all the details and advice that is needed to cope with the pandemic in the next few years. Armenian writers have also used the period of isolation to write new books. They assure that the new books will be published soon. 

Newmag suggests its readers to read the “Deadly Choices”, in order to be fully informed before fighting against the pandemic. The book will also give the answer to the most discussed question - why should you get vaccinated? Newmag also suggests reading the “Nel Contagio” book, to understand how we can reduce our negative impact on the environment.