The World Health Organization chief scientist on Monday has warned that even though several countries have begun rolling out vaccines against the Covid-19, herd immunity would not be achieved this year.
WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan has warned that it will take time to produce and administer enough doses to halt the spread of the virus.
People across the globe are looking forward to vaccines which would finally enable them to return to normality in the months ahead
“We are not going to achieve any levels of population immunity or herd immunity in 2021,” she told a virtual press briefing from WHO’s headquarters in Geneva. "Even if it happens in a couple of pockets, in a few countries, it's not going to protect people across the world, she said.
Swaminathan emphasised on the need to continue following the coronavirus safety measures like physical distancing, hand washing and mask-wearing to survive in the pandemic unless the vaccine reaches everyone.
In the past recent weeks, Britain, the US, France, Canada, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands and others have started vaccinating millions of their citizens against the covid-19 with Pfizer being approved in many countries.
She hailed the “incredible progress” made by scientists who managed the unthinkable of developing not one but several safe and effective vaccines against a brand new virus in under a year.
But, she stressed that even after the rollout takes place, “It takes time to scale the production of doses, not just in the millions, but here we are talking about in the billions,” she pointed out, calling on people to “be a little bit patient.”
Vaccines will reach everyone but meanwhile, people must keep following the measures that work, she added.
For an entire population to get protection against diseases, scientists typically estimate that a vaccination rate of about 70% is needed for herd immunity. But some fear that the extremely infectious nature of Covid-19 could require a significantly higher threshold.
Dr Bruce Aylward, an adviser to WHO's director-general, said the UN health agency is hopeful that covid-19 immunisation process might begin later in this month or in February in some poorer countries, appealing on the global community to do more to ensure all countries have access to vaccines.
"We cannot do that on our own," Aylward said, saying WHO demanded the assistance of vaccine manufacturers, in particular, to start immunising vulnerable populations, as WHO was intending to have "a rollout plan" detailing which developing countries might start receiving vaccines next month.
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However, a bulk of the world's coronavirus vaccines stock has already been purchased by rich countries.
The UN-backed initiative known as COVAX, which aims at delivering vaccine shots to developing nations is going short of vaccines, money and logistical help as donor countries themselves struggle to protect their citizens, particularly in the wake of newly coronavirus strain evolved in Britain and South Africa, which many officials believe has increased the spread of the virus.