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Coronavirus vaccines will save 2021? Not so fast, here’s what the experts think
- This Week in Asia asked five top public-health experts for their reflections on 12 months defined by the pandemic, and their outlook for next year
- While vaccine announcements offer some hope, this isn’t over yet – not by a long shot
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This past year was defined by Covid-19. As 2020 comes to a close, we asked five top public-health experts for their reflections on the lessons learned during the pandemic and the outlook for 2021.
JEROME KIM, Director-General of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, South Korea
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Within a year, we went from an initial report of an unknown respiratory disease in Wuhan, China, to a global pandemic that has infected about 75 million people and killed more than 1.6 million.
Massive efforts to develop a vaccine have culminated in the announcements of four (or five) that prevent Covid-19 infection. More will follow in the next two months.
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But vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer, Gamaleya, AstraZeneca, and perhaps Sinopharm, with two months’ worth of efficacy and safety data, are just weapons in the war against the disease.
They now need to be made in massive quantities and delivered to sites where an army of vaccinators can use them as part of a comprehensive strategy of Covid-19 control.
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