Africa-Press – Uganda. Several developed countries—the US, UK and Israel have in recent months, rightly inspired by their high vaccination coverage against Covid-19, indulged in talk of throwing off the mask, lifting travel for tourism to designated sites, and of course, opening up completely.
While this talk is a welcome public gesture that there is sufficient trust in the efficiency of the vaccines to reduce transmissions and deaths from Covid-19, thereby deterring the negative impact Covid-19 has wrought on humanity socio-economically, it appears that the policy framers of the same have strategically played on the expectations of the masses to return to normalcy, to popularise the school of thought that vaccination alone will overcome the pandemic.
Amid the emergence of variants with unknown transmission abilities and break through capabilities, it remains particularly important, especially for those with underlying comorbidities to continue maintaining social distancing, sanitising and wearing masks-the non pharmacological interventions that have since inception proven effective at stopping one from catching Covid-19.
Where would one who is vulnerable pick infections, is a key question to posture. Vaccination, while meant to prevent primary infection as well as transmission, seems not fool proof against either phenomenon. Those vaccinated can still get infected and spread the virus, if not variants. While they may be protected against severe outcomes of such infections, those with underlying comorbidities particularly diabetes mellitus, might not be so lucky even when fully vaccinated.
It therefore follows that out of collective public health responsibility, even when fully vaccinated, one continues to maintain the non-pharmaceutical interventions. And this public health requirement might not only just be limited to keeping the SOPs, it might encroach on some of the emerging privileges that vaccinees have lately enjoyed including not being tested at the airports. The later has driven the concept of the Covid-19 travel certificate or card, but alas, the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV2 amid the emerging variants and idiosyncrasies in human susceptibilities might not give us that much biological certainty to make these absolute declarations scientifically in confidence.
The uncertainty that assails what might be the play out for vaccine efficiency amid emerging variants and host differences in susceptibility invokes non scientists to question the scientists confidence in the Covid-19 vaccines , but alas, that’s exactly what Covid-19 has proven to be, a holy grail of scientific postulates.
The global community can only confidently speak about the efficiency of the vaccines to control the global pandemic if al humanity is given the equal access to the required dose of the vaccines. Otherwise, we shall only be creating monuments that will fall amid the a new assault of this cunny virus. Authored by Dr Misaki Wayengera
