Vaccine inequity and emerging variants mean the future of the pandemic is increasingly uncertain, researchers say
Infectious diseases expert and director of the Doherty Institute, Prof Sharon Lewin, said: “Last year, I definitely did not think we would be in this position.”
These variants are immune evasive; whether that immunity comes from vaccination, or infection from other variants and subvariants. They are also highly infectious; between 10-to-20 times more so, Lewin says, than the original strain first identified in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. “Even if it’s just a very small percentage of those that end up in hospital, it’s still a large number overall, and the same is true with regard to long Covid which may potentially gives us a big burden of disease over time.
magazine, researchers argued that vaccine equity – along with access to treatment for HIV in Africa and curbing stigma – could help the world see fewer Covid variants emerge.
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