The week
Why the COVID-19 variant could extend the pandemic until 2024
Last week, New York gave a worrying account of what is happening in the Brazilian city of Manaus, which was previously thought to have built up widespread protection against the virus last year, only to experience another major outbreak. There are theories about how this happened – the immunity of the community is overestimated, the protection of the antibody is diminished, the variant becomes more transmissible, or, perhaps the biggest, the virus that adapts to evade antibodies. Either way, an increasing number of variants like those in Brazil could theoretically push back the final. Axios put it a little differently – the current pandemic may be almost over, but the variants could cause new ones. Several vaccines have been shown to work well against the main coronavirus strain, and the more transmissible British variant also seems very susceptible to them, but the South African variant appears to be more resistant. And, says New York, even a slight drop in “population-based protection by vaccination alone” can occur. However, the New York Times explains that reports on the effectiveness of the vaccine often do not tell the whole story. Scientifically speaking, vaccine research considers any transmission to be a failure, but it may not be the most important thing. Novavax and Johnson & Johnson provided data showing that their vaccine candidates did not stop infections in South Africa, as elsewhere, but were still very successful in preventing serious illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths. This suggests a possible scenario in which vaccines reduce the coronavirus to a much milder pathogen. But it is still not enough worldwide, according to New York. Even if vaccines significantly reduce the worst COVID-19 outcomes, the world’s poorer countries are not expected to reach mass vaccinations until after 2024, so although the tide in the United States may turn faster, the global pandemic could continue for years to come. be. , especially if variants interfere with the natural herd immunity. Read more at New York, Axios and The New York Times. More stories from theweek.com Rise of conservative Barstool America’s overreaction syndrome Eric Trump allegedly said on election day that his father would win 320 election votes.