Coronavirus: is it time to accept that vaccines alone won’t end the pandemic?
- The Delta variant has challenged the assumption that a vaccination rate of 70 per cent of the population will stop the spread
- While inoculation is helping to reduce deaths and pressure on health care systems, a more comprehensive strategy is needed
While the study did not say how many of those deaths were caused by Delta, the variant has been rapidly spreading in Britain since early June.
The speed at which the virus is mutating has also prompted scientists to call for more realistic expectations of what vaccines can achieve.
If the vaccines cannot stop transmission, the virus will continue to mutate and new variants will continue to emerge. That means Covid-19 could end up like the flu – meaning it is here to stay and it will keep mutating, with new vaccines or booster shots required while a broad-spectrum jab targeting multiple variants is developed.
Peter Sands, executive director of advocacy group the Global Fund, last week said that while vaccines were still the best weapon, they could not stop the spread of the disease quickly as the vaccination rate in developing countries was simply too low – just 2 per cent of the population in some places.
“There’s no scenario in which we’re going to be able to accelerate vaccination deployment fast enough to be able to arrest the upsurges from Delta,” Sands said.
Instead, he said there should be more focus on treatment, oxygen supplies and rapid testing.
His comments echo what scientists have long said – that vaccines are not silver bullets and a more comprehensive strategy to fight the pandemic is needed.