Copenhagen: The head of the WHO Europe was on Friday pessimistic about vaccines’ ability to put an end to the Covid pandemic, as new variants dash hopes of reaching herd immunity.
Faced with the possibility that the virus may be around for many years, health officials must now "anticipate how to gradually adapt our vaccination strategy," in particular on the question of additional doses, Hans Kluge told reporters.
In May, the WHO director had said "the pandemic will be over once we reach 70 percent minimum coverage in vaccination." Asked by AFP if that figure was still a target or whether more people would need to be vaccinated, Kluge acknowledged that the situation had changed due to new, more transmissible variants, such as Delta.
"I think it brings us to the point that the aim of a vaccination is first and foremost to prevent more serious disease, and that’s mortality," he said. "If we consider that Covid will continue to mutate and remain with us, the way influenza is, then we should anticipate how to gradually adapt our vaccination strategy to endemic transmission and gather really precious knowledge about the impact of additional jabs," he added.
Epidemiologists now suggest that it is unrealistic that herd immunity can be reached solely with the use of vaccines, though they remain crucial to contain the pandemic. High vaccination rates are also necessary to "to unload the pressure from healthcare systems" that desperately need to treat other diseases pushed to the backburner by Covid, Kluge said.
The Delta variant is considered to be 60 percent more transmissible than the previous dominant variant Alpha, and twice as contagious as the original virus. The more contagious the virus, the higher the bar for reaching herd immunity, which is when enough people are immune that the virus stops circulating. That can be obtained either by vaccination or natural infection.
Meanwhile, South Africa on Friday launched the main phase of a global Covid vaccine study on children and teenagers led by Chinese maker Sinovac Biotech, with the first two participants jabbed in Pretoria. The study is testing the efficacy of Sinovac’s two-dose CoronaVac on 14,000 children aged between six months and 17 years in Chile, Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Africa.
CoronaVac is approved for use among adults in over 50 countries. China recently cleared it for use in minors, where it has already been administered to millions of children aged three to 17. South Africa, where vaccination has not yet been extended to under-18s, kicked off the study with two teenagers jabbed on the sunny campus of Pretoria’s Sefako Makgatho Health Science University.
"We see a lot of milder and less severe disease in children, but they still remain susceptible," project director Sanet Aspinall told reporters at the event. "They are... getting the infection and they are then able to transmit it to the rest of the population," she explained, assuring the Chinese vaccine was safe.
US manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna have also undertaken pediatric trials of their shots, prompting several countries to green light them for children in varying age groups. South African Medical Research Council president Glenda Gray urged the country to follow suit.
"Delaying the inclusion of children in the Covid vaccine trials delays our ability to contain Covid-19," she said during Friday’s event. Over a third of South Africa’s population is younger than 19. The country has enrolled 2,000 participants in the study, carried out in collaboration with Sinovac’s local partner Numolux Group.
Sinovac is also in talks about setting up a vaccine production facility in South Africa to provide the continent with shots against a range of diseases, Numolux executives said.In a related development, US President Joe Biden late on Thursday announced a major escalation in the national Covid immunisation campaign with strict new vaccination rules affecting tens of millions of workers, as he hardened his tone towards Americans who refuse the shots.
The six-point plan targets businesses with more than 100 employees, in the United States’ most aggressive steps taken so far against the surging Delta variant. "A distinct minority of Americans supported by a distinct minority of elected officials are keeping us from turning the corner," the Democratic president said in a televised address from the White House. "The unvaccinated overcrowd our hospitals, are overrunning emergency rooms and intensive care units, leaving no room for someone with a heart attack or pancreatitis or cancer," he added.
The most expansive of the actions involves requiring private companies with more than 100 workers to ensure they are vaccinated or tested weekly. The federal measure will impact an estimated 80 million people. Republican lawmakers immediately slammed the administration and claimed it was overstepping its authority. "Sounds a lot like a dictatorship," House Republicans tweeted on their official account.
The plan also mandates vaccinations for all federal employees and contractors. Currently, government workers either need to have a vaccine or submit to regular testing, whereas the new rule will enforce virtually total vaccination.
Some 17 million health care workers at facilities receiving government Medicare or Medicaid program funding will also require vaccination. Only exemptions will be allowed for religious reasons or for people with disabilities -- a strict approach sure to put Biden on a collision course with right-wing media and other powerful groups arguing that mandates amount to an attack on individual freedoms.
For its part, the US Chamber of Commerce "will work to ensure that employers have the resources, guidance and flexibility necessary to... comply with public health requirements," its executive vice president Neil Bradley said. Some 80 million Americans remain unvaccinated. Research shows they tend to be younger, less educated, and more likely to be Republican.