‘Put simply, the game has changed, and a successful global rollout of current vaccines by itself is no longer a guarantee of victory... No one is truly safe from COVID-19 until everyone is safe. We are in a race against time to get global transmission rates low enough to prevent the emergence and spread of new variants. The danger is that variants will arise that can overcome the immunity conferred by vaccinations or prior infection.
‘What’s more, many countries lack the capacity to track emerging variants via genomic surveillance. This means the situation may be even more serious than it appears.
‘As members of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission Taskforce on Public Health, we call for urgent action in response to the new variants. These new variants mean we cannot rely on the vaccines alone to provide protection but must maintain strong public health measures to reduce the risk from these variants. At the same time, we need to accelerate the vaccine program in all countries in an equitable way. Together, these strategies will deliver “maximum suppression” of the virus.’
Read here (The Conversation, Apr 6, 2021)
Download report here (Lancet Covid-19 Commission Taskforce on Public Health, March 2021)
