Although health workers around the world are administering the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines in hopes of ending the global pandemic, the increase in virus variants underscores the need for a faster-acting vaccine, says Dr. Ashish Jha.
Mutations formed new variants that originated in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil. All were apparently found in the United States.
“There are variants when infections become wild, and selection pressure leads to dangerous mutations that can then thrive,” Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, wrote in A Twitter thread Thursday night.
“Each of these countries had major outbreaks even before their variants began,” he added in a subsequent tweet. ‘What are the implications if we ever want to end the pandemic? We need to bring (the) pandemic under control everywhere. ”
According to Jha, in order to crush virus outbreaks, officials need to implement virus control policies, expand testing, wear high-quality masks and “vaccinate the world as quickly as possible.”
Jha demanded that an effort be made to manufacture vaccines around the world to speed up the doses.
“In a future where (the) US is vaccinated but others are not, we may see (the) increase in variants that can infect, break out here and other vaccinated places – requiring us to update our vaccines and all of them again. inent, “he wrote. “This is the nightmare scenario of a never-ending pandemic.”
Read the topic below:
So let’s talk about where variants come from and under what circumstances
Variants arise when infections are wild
And selection pressure leads to dangerous mutations that can then thrive
Remember, every infection creates opportunities for ‘errors’ or mutations
2/6
– Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) 29 January 2021
United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil – and possibly the USA (LA variant is still being sorted out)
Each of these countries had major outbreaks even before their variants began.
So what are the implications if we are ever to end this pandemic?
We need to bring pandemic under control everywhere
4/7
– Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) 29 January 2021
In a future where the US is vaccinated but others are not
We can see that there are different variants that can infect, which can cause vaccinated spots here and there.
Requires us to update our vaccines and vaccinate everyone again
This is the nightmare scenario of a never-ending pandemic
6/7
– Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) 29 January 2021
This is what makes advocates for herd immunity (remember the Great Barrington Declaration?) So naive
They literally pleaded for the virus to have more chances to mutate
And what makes US isolationist policies so naive?
Because we live on a planet
A varied journey
8/9
– Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) 29 January 2021
Do you want to end the pandemic?
Let’s make global manufacturing efforts to make a lot of vaccinations fast
And ent all in
Because large outbreaks can lead to variants that can escape vaccines everywhere
At the end of the day we really sit in this
Fin
– Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) 29 January 2021
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