It is possible to bring the COVID pandemic to an end by 2023 if the entire world acts within the next few months and ensure vaccines are made available to the poorer nations for primary vaccination through COVAX – COVID vaccines global access programme, observed public health experts.

“If intellectual property rights are waived for a short period, much more vaccine stock can be produced quickly to meet the world’s need,” said Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) – Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH), Hyderabad director Dr. G.V.S. Murthy.

Only 6% people in low and middle income countries compared to nearly 90% in high income countries have been vaccinated with at least one dose. “This will prolong the pandemic unless world leaders get over their nationalistic agendas, as at the end of the day, completely ending the pandemic phase is in everybody’s interest”, he asserted in an exclusive interaction.

Importance of testing

“There is an important role for primary vaccination, booster doses, and accessible and affordable testing to end the pandemic. Testing will prevent disease transmission and rapidly detect a new variant and the resultant surge of infections,” he said.

The director said unless populations across the world are protected from the virus through measures like accessible vaccination, “it is certain we will continue to see new variants emerge and rapidly spread across the globe.”

More than 100 countries including India, South Africa, China and USA and hundreds of organisations supported by WHO are pushing for temporary waiver of intellectual property rights to COVID-19 vaccines and drugs, for at least a year or more, explained Dr. Murthy.

“If the global coalition succeeds, it will hasten the pandemic to end. Vaccine manufacturers are currently producing an estimated 1.5 billion doses per month, so there will be enough stock for boosters in high income or vaccine manufacturing countries and also primary vaccination in other countries,” he pointed out.

5 VsOC

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified five SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern, since the beginning of the pandemic: Alpha (B.1.1.7): first VOC described in the United Kingdom (UK) in late December 2020; Beta (B.1.351): first reported in South Africa in December 2020; Gamma(P.1): first reported in Brazil in early January 2021; Delta (B.1.617.2): first reported in India in December 2020 and Omicron (B.1.1.529): first reported in South Africa and Botswana in November 2021.

“Each new variant has fuelled an increase in cases globally as international travel and trade will continue. Therefore, future variants may come from different locations and spread across the globe. We have been lucky Omicron resulted in mild to moderate infections or was asymptomatic, but this may not be the case with a future variant,” added Dr, Murthy.