Posted on Jan 31, 2021
As Virus Variants Spread, ‘No One Is Safe Until Everyone Is Safe’
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Rich countries are cornering the market on coronavirus vaccines, leaving poorer regions as potential breeding grounds for variants, like one found in South Africa, that could make vaccines less effective. (Headline teaser missing from MSNBC version (same source).)
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — As a dangerous variant of the coronavirus first discovered in South Africa sickens and kills thousands across the country, Jan Matsena has shown up every day to stock the shelves at a Cape Town supermarket, terrified that he too will catch it.
A neighbor died in December, then a co-worker this month. Now Mr. Matsena is waiting for a vaccine so he can return home to his township and hold his baby daughter again. But in South Africa, the country hit hardest so far by the variant, inoculations have not yet started.
“The wait for this vaccine has been long, long now,” said Mr. Matsena, a first-time father who has been living away from his family for fear of exposing them. “People are passing away, people are losing jobs. It’s trauma.”
While more than 90 million people worldwide have been vaccinated, only 25 in all of sub-Saharan Africa, a region of about 1 billion people, have been given doses outside of drug trials, according to the World Health Organization.
But as new variants like the one discovered in South Africa migrate to more countries — including the United States — it is becoming ever clearer that the tragedy for poorer countries could become a tragedy for every country. The more the virus spreads, and the longer it takes to vaccinate people, the greater chance it has to continue to mutate in ways that put the whole world at risk.
Link to free access version - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/as-virus-variants-spread-no-one-is-safe-until-everyone-is-safe/ar-BB1dfRA6?ocid=msedgntp
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — As a dangerous variant of the coronavirus first discovered in South Africa sickens and kills thousands across the country, Jan Matsena has shown up every day to stock the shelves at a Cape Town supermarket, terrified that he too will catch it.
A neighbor died in December, then a co-worker this month. Now Mr. Matsena is waiting for a vaccine so he can return home to his township and hold his baby daughter again. But in South Africa, the country hit hardest so far by the variant, inoculations have not yet started.
“The wait for this vaccine has been long, long now,” said Mr. Matsena, a first-time father who has been living away from his family for fear of exposing them. “People are passing away, people are losing jobs. It’s trauma.”
While more than 90 million people worldwide have been vaccinated, only 25 in all of sub-Saharan Africa, a region of about 1 billion people, have been given doses outside of drug trials, according to the World Health Organization.
But as new variants like the one discovered in South Africa migrate to more countries — including the United States — it is becoming ever clearer that the tragedy for poorer countries could become a tragedy for every country. The more the virus spreads, and the longer it takes to vaccinate people, the greater chance it has to continue to mutate in ways that put the whole world at risk.
Link to free access version - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/as-virus-variants-spread-no-one-is-safe-until-everyone-is-safe/ar-BB1dfRA6?ocid=msedgntp
As Virus Variants Spread, ‘No One Is Safe Until Everyone Is Safe’
Posted from nytimes.com
Coronavirus COVID19
Health
Psychology
Edited 4 y ago
Posted 4 y ago
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Moving the goalposts is a metaphor, derived from goal-based sports, that means to change the criterion of a process or competition while it is still in progress, in such a way that the new goal offers one side an advantage or disadvantage. Wikipedia
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"Even in the most optimistic scenarios, Ms. Taylor said, at the current pace of production, there will not be enough vaccines for true global coverage until 2023. The current rollout plans across Africa are expected to vaccinate only 20 to 35 percent of the population this year if everything goes right."
Interesting thing about this comment from the article, no mention of whether this is at the original 70 percent herd immunity goal, the interim 80 percent goal, or is it the 90 to 95 percent goal that Dr. Fauci is now touting?
Or are these institutional spokespeople going to go the route that the World Health Organization (UN WHO) has taken, and state - "To safely achieve herd immunity against COVID-19, a substantial proportion of a population would need to be vaccinated, lowering the overall amount of virus able to spread in the whole population." And then continually shift the goal. It is interesting to note that so many people claim that for measles that herd immunity is achieved at 95 percent. Reflect on that for a moment.
Interesting thing about this comment from the article, no mention of whether this is at the original 70 percent herd immunity goal, the interim 80 percent goal, or is it the 90 to 95 percent goal that Dr. Fauci is now touting?
Or are these institutional spokespeople going to go the route that the World Health Organization (UN WHO) has taken, and state - "To safely achieve herd immunity against COVID-19, a substantial proportion of a population would need to be vaccinated, lowering the overall amount of virus able to spread in the whole population." And then continually shift the goal. It is interesting to note that so many people claim that for measles that herd immunity is achieved at 95 percent. Reflect on that for a moment.
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