Scientists call for expanding global anti-covid vaccination to curb new variants

A group of leading British scientists warned boris Johnson’s government on Friday about the importance of vaccinating the entire world population as the most effective way to prevent the development of new variants of coronavirus. In that sense, they explained that if poorer countries are allowed to remain unvaccinated their populations the strains could continue to flourish while accusing rich nations of taking a “reckless approach to public health.” The claims were made by a group of more than 300 experts, including members of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and advisers to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI). According to this group of scientists, vaccines “will not be effective” in stopping new variants unless the UK ensures that more people in poorer countries are inoculated.
“The Ómicron variant was first identified in Botswana and South Africa, on a continent where less than one in ten is fully vaccinated,” they exemplified.

“Allowing large numbers of people in low- and middle-income countries to remain unvaccinated is a reckless approach to public health that creates conditions in which worrying new variants of the coronavirus are more likely to develop,” they warn in the document sent to the media. Unless we share this technology with the world and increase global vaccination coverage, vaccines will not be effective in stopping new variants of concern,” the letter on scientific innovations states. They recommended using and expanding the UK’s vaccine manufacturing and distribution capacity in low- and middle-income countries and urged the prime minister to support international efforts to suspend intellectual property rules that prevent low-income nations from manufacturing vaccines, tests and treatments against the virus.

It is worth noting that the United Kingdom is, together with the European Union (EU) and Switzerland, one of the main detractors of the proposal to release patents that has been stopped for more than a year in the World Trade Organization (WTO).” The scientific evidence has been clear since the beginning of the pandemic that the best way to keep ourselves and our NHS (the British public health body) safe from new variants is to vaccinate the world.”

Original source in Spanish