This is evident from a survey by People’s Vaccine Alliance, a social organization that includes Oxfam Novib and Amnesty International. They asked 76 epidemiologists from 28 countries about the corona crisis.
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Two thirds of these epidemiologists fear that the coronavirus is mutating to such an extent that most current vaccines are no longer effective within one year.
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Vaccine resistant mutations
We already know the British, South African, Brazilian and many other mutations of the corona virus. “The more the virus circulates, the more likely it is that mutations and variants will emerge that could make our current vaccines ineffective,” explains Devi Sridhar, professor of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh.
How is that possible? “With millions of people around the world infected with corona, new mutations emerge every day that are more resistant than their predecessors,” said Gregg Gonsalves, associate professor of epidemiology at Yale University. “The virus knows no borders and new variants, somewhere on Earth, mean that none of us are safe.”
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The People’s Vaccine Alliance warns that at the current rate, only 10 percent of people in most poor countries could be vaccinated next year. That message is not new, by the way: told last week two experts in Kenya RTL News that there is a risk of corona mutations because the west is stocking vaccines.
In this video we explain in detail what a mutation of the virus looks like:
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The social organization therefore calls on governments to do everything they can to make vaccines a ‘public good’. Three quarters of epidemiologists think patent sharing could help.
Empty promises
The Dutch epidemiologist Amrish Baidjoe, affiliated with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is one of the scientists who foresees problems. “Despite promises that have been made, nothing has come of the fair distribution of vaccines,” he says.
“If we can vaccinate ourselves in the west, but not in poorer countries, then we have a problem worldwide,” explains Baidjoe. “Scaling up vaccine production is now essential and for that, pharmaceuticals should share their patents and knowledge.”
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