Forty countries have suspended all travel to and from Britain because of a new coronavirus variant that seems to transmit from person to person much more quickly than others.
But World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus suggests caution. “Viruses mutate over time; that’s natural and expected,” he said today. “The UK has reported that this new variant transmits more easily but there is no evidence so far that it is more likely to cause severe disease or mortality.”
As the US and UK unroll mass vaccination campaigns, the dismal news from London has brought Christmas festivities to a halt in much of Europe. The sight of Joe Biden getting the jab failed to uplift because inoculation is not yet available in European Union (EU) countries.
WHO is working frenetically with scientists to understand how genetic changes affect the coronavirus’ behavior. It goes without saying that transmission must be suppressed of all variants of SARS-CoV-2 viruses as quickly as possible.
“The more we allow it to spread, the more opportunity it has to change,” Tedros said. “I can’t stress enough – to all governments and all people – how important it is to take the necessary precautions to limit transmission.” Safe and effective vaccines have raised hope but should not be used as an excuse for people to let down their guard.
But Europeans are not in a mood to listen to sermons. The winter ski season is ruined and restaurants will remain closed except for short periods during the day. The loss of earnings is colossal and public protests are rising because holidays are sacrosanct for Europeans and they do not take kindly to interference.
Christmas-New year week may turn into a biggest ever mess across Europe because none of the governments inspires confidence that it knows what it is doing in handling the Covid-19 crisis. The political fallout next year could be dire in local elections in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Holland and Belgium.
Hongkong has scored a first by refusing passengers from Britain if they spent more than two hours there. It has had four waves of coronavirus and 20% of infections have been traced to Britain. So a new more contagious variant could be a nightmare and other Asian airports may soon follow its example.
One of the biggest bits of fake news is that Covid-19 only affects the old, and that with vaccines on the horizon all will be fine. The facts are that it affects children and adults in many ways and it can attack every system in the body. This includes neurological complications for children and adults, which are still being researched, Tedros said. A growing number of people also suffer with long-term consequences of the virus.
The European Union (EU) is expected to kick off its vaccination campaign right after Christmas on Sunday. But each of its 27 member countries will receive only small quantities until the supply situation improves well into next year.
The US has better transport infrastructure than the EU but its teething troubles in distributing the vaccines signal the disarray Europeans could fall into since there are 27 independent countries with their own laws, transport and logistics regulations.
The other profound concern is whether reliable and properly tested vaccines will ever reach poorer countries in sufficient quantities and fast enough. If vaccines do not reach those countries quickly, new virus variants may arrive in the US and Europe just as they start to suppress the pandemic after the first wave of vaccination.
WHO has set up a funding facility, called COVAX, backed by 190 countries to secure access to nearly two billion doses of promising vaccine candidates for urgent distribution in poorer nations.
It needs US$ 4.6 billion in 2021 to purchase vaccines to cover at least 20% of the population of all low and lower-middle income countries. Donor countries, usually led by the US, have shown understanding but have not loosened purse strings because of their own financial problems caused by the pandemic.
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