New variants mean a new consensus on ending Covid-19, and it’s not good news
Scientific optimism about effective vaccines has been short-lived as recent data on variants means the virus will probably cause a significant burden of illness and death for years
Chicago/London — Chris Murray, a University of Washington disease expert whose projections on Covid-19 infections and deaths are closely followed worldwide, is changing his assumptions about the course of the pandemic.
Murray was, until recently, hopeful that the discovery of several effective vaccines could help countries achieve herd immunity, or nearly eliminate transmission through a combination of inoculation and previous infection. But in the past month, data from a vaccine trial in SA showed not only that a rapidly spreading coronavirus variant could dampen the effect of the vaccine, it could also evade natural immunity in people who had been previously infected...
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