Making vaccines available to all is crucial, but multiple boosters won’t be necessary for most of us
Since the pandemic began almost two years ago, the monster that is Covid-19 has visited every corner of Earth, killing more than 5.5 million people. But we have fought back with astounding speed and vigour, and the situation today is very different from that in early 2020. Ten billion vaccine doses will have been administered worldwide by early February. The Covax scheme has delivered 1bn vaccines to lower-income countries. As a result, global daily deaths from the virus are at their lowest point in more than a year.
So, is the monster slain? No. Covid-19 will not just disappear. Only one human infectious disease has been eradicated from the planet – smallpox – and that took nearly 200 years. Polio is near to extinction, but it has taken a 70-year campaign. Covid-19 may be even more troublesome. Unlike those viruses, Covid-19 has been able to easily adapt to find its way around human immunity (whether from infection or vaccination) so that it can survive. Omicron, or its progeny, will probably be with us for decades to come.
Prof Sir Andrew Pollard is director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, University of Oxford. He was the chief investigator for the clinical trials of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine
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