GENEVA – Though many international locations have launched vaccination campaigns against COVID-19, it is very unlikely that herd immunity will be achieved this yr, the World Well being Group (WHO) warned on Monday.
At a press convention, Dr Sumya Swaminathan, the WHO’s chief scientist, mentioned that it is essential that international locations and their populations preserve strict social distancing and different prevention measures in the close to future. In latest weeks, Britain, the United States, France, Canada, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, and others have begun vaccinating their residents against the coronavirus.
“At the same time as vaccines start to guard the most weak, we aren’t going to attain any stage of inhabitants immunity or herd immunity in 2021,” Swaminathan mentioned. “Even when it occurs in a few areas, in just a few international locations, it’s not going to guard individuals throughout the world.”
Scientists sometimes estimate that a vaccination price of roughly 70% is critical for herd immunity to be achieved. However some concern that the extraordinarily infectious nature of COVID-19 could require a considerably larger threshold.
Dr. Bruce Aylward, adviser to the director basic of the WHO, indicated that the company is hopeful that inoculations against the coronavirus may start this month or in February in a few of the poorest international locations in the world, and referred to as on the group international to do extra to make sure that all international locations have entry to vaccines.
“We will’t do that alone,” Aylward mentioned, saying the WHO requires the cooperation of vaccine producers, particularly to start immunizing weak populations.
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