According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is very likely that the deployment of vaccination against Covid-19 will not be sufficient to put an end to the epidemic.
- The emergence of the Delta variant, twice as contagious as the Alpha variant, dampens hopes of global collective immunity against Covid-19.
- According to the director of the WHO, it is urgent to adapt the vaccination strategy to reduce the pressure on health systems and reduce the risk of developing a serious form, in particular by generalizing the 3rd dose of vaccine.
Until last May, the World Health Organization (WHO) was optimistic about the positive effects of vaccination on the global Covid-19 pandemic. While the vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna or even Sinovac were deployed on all the continents of the Planet, the director of the WHO Hans Kluge had declared that “the pandemic would be over when we reach a minimum vaccination coverage of 70%” of the world’s population.
But this was wishful thinking. In question: the problem of variants, in particular Delta, much more contagious, which calls into question the hope of collective immunity. Although Delta was already active on the Indian subcontinent, “there was no such emergence of more transmissible and more viral variants”recognized the director of the WHO during a press conference on Friday, September 10.
Vaccination, essential to limit the risk of a serious form
However, even if achieving herd immunity with vaccination is highly compromised, it is essential to be vaccinated to “reduce the pressure on our health systems which desperately need to treat diseases other than Covid”recalled Hans Kluge.
The vaccine is all the more valuable as the Delta variant is 60% more transmissible than the Alpha variant (known as “English”) and it doubles the risk of hospitalization and a severe form of the disease.
Adapt the vaccine strategy to virus mutations
Now the priority is to“to anticipate” the mutation of SARS-CoV-2 so that vaccinated people remain protected against the critical forms of Covid-19. “If we consider that the Covid will continue to mutate and stay with us, like the flu, then we must anticipate how to gradually adapt our vaccination strategy to endemic transmission, and acquire very valuable knowledge on the impact of additional doses”added Hans Kluge, who relies in particular on the generalization of a third dose. “I believe this brings us to the point where the essential objective of vaccination is above all to prevent serious forms of the disease and mortality”he concluded.
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