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COVID herd immunity will not happen in 2021, says WHO
13 Jan 2021 at 09:07hrs | Views
World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said Monday that herd immunity to the coronavirus would not be achieved in 2021, despite the growing availability of vaccines.
Mitigating factors to herd immunity include limited access to vaccines in developing countries, skepticism about vaccination and the potential for virus mutations, according to health experts.
A growing number of countries around the world - including the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Germany and other EU countries - are in the first stages of mass-vaccination campaigns.
Herd immunity occurs when enough people in a population have immunity to an infection so that it prevents the disease from spreading.
Swaminathan commended the "incredible progress" made by researchers to develop several safe and effective vaccines at unprecedented speed.
Countries are currently administering vaccines developed by BioNTech-Pfizer, Oxford University/AstraZeneca and Moderna.
Mitigating factors to herd immunity include limited access to vaccines in developing countries, skepticism about vaccination and the potential for virus mutations, according to health experts.
A growing number of countries around the world - including the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Germany and other EU countries - are in the first stages of mass-vaccination campaigns.
Swaminathan commended the "incredible progress" made by researchers to develop several safe and effective vaccines at unprecedented speed.
Countries are currently administering vaccines developed by BioNTech-Pfizer, Oxford University/AstraZeneca and Moderna.
Source - Al Jazeera
