Sunday, November 24

WHO rules out herd immunity against Covid-19 being achieved in 2021


WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said it will take time to reach the level of vaccination necessary to contain the pandemic

OMS descarta que se alcance la inmunidad de rebaño contra Covid-19 en 2021
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan asks people to be patient.

Photo: Getty Images

BBC News Mundo

Despite the fact that several countries are already applying vaccines against the coronavirus, the world will not achieve herd immunity in 2021, as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned this Monday.

“We are not going to achieve any level of herd immunity in 2021 ”because vaccine deployment“ takes time, ”said WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan at a virtual press conference from Geneva,

“It takes time to scale the production of doses, not only in millions, but here we are talking about billions,” he also said, and asked people to have “a little patience.”

Swaminathan pointed out that in the end “the vaccines will arrive” and that “they will go to all countries”. But he recalled that in the meantime “there are measures that work.”

The scientist asked people to continue taking precautions such as physical distancing, hand washing and the use of masks to combat the pandemic, precautions that will be necessary for “at least the rest of this year.”

Vaccination progress

More than a year has passed since China reported to the WHO the first cases of a new type of pneumonia, which weeks later would receive the name of covid – 40.

Una enfermera mexicana recibiendo la vacuna.
Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica are already applying the covid vaccine – 40.

Since then and until this Monday, They have registered 90, 604, 773 cases of the disease in all continents of the planet, and 1 have died, 939, 488 people all over the world.

  • “For all of us to be protected against the coronavirus, vaccination really has to be global”

At least 48 countries have already begun to vaccinate their population against covid – 19.

In Latin America, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica and Argentina are already applying the vaccine.

So far, Israel is the country most advanced in the general immunization of its inhabitants .

But in its last conference of 2020, WHO also said that despite the vaccination, the eradication of the covid – 19 “It is a very high fence”.

“The exist The use of a vaccine, even with high efficacy, is no guarantee of elimination or eradication of an infectious disease, ”said Dr. Mark Ryan, head of the WHO emergency program, in late December.

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