Open AccessOne and a half years into the COVID-19 pandemic - exit strategies and efficacy of SARS- CoV-2 vaccines for holistic management and achieving global control
Author(s) -
Eskild Petersen,
Ayşe Deniz Gökengin,
Asma Al Balushi,
Alimuddin Zumla
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
turkish journal of medical sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.277
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1303-6165
pISSN - 1300-0144
DOI - 10.3906/sag-2106-236
Subject(s) - herd immunity , medicine , pandemic , covid-19 , population , immunity , infection control , immunology , intensive care medicine , virology , immune system , environmental health , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty)
One and a half years into the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 is still here to stay. Whilst rapid several effective COVID-19 vaccines have been developed and are being rolled out, the critical questions remain whether vaccines provide widespread protection against infection and reinfection, and what the duration of protection is. Community wide control cannot be obtained until almost everyone is immune. Vaccine production must be ramped up to cover the world population. The price of herd immunity through natural infection is high mortality in the elderly and morbidity in other age groups including children and Long-COVID. We must expect a new wave in the coming winter. The severity will depend on the proportion of the population with immunity from natural infections or immunisation. Therefore, control rests on a population wide immunisation including children, which may or may not need to be repeated if new SARS-CoV-2 variants evolve that can escape immunity from either previous infections or immunisations. Preventing long term sequelae of COVID-19 also remains a priority.