No one is safe until everyone is vaccinated against Covid: Johns Hopkins Scientist

New Delhi: Vaccine inequality remains a problem within India, where less than 2 percent of the population has received a booster dose of Covid, while 56 countries in the world cannot vaccinate even 10 percent of their populations, says Amita Gupta, a Johns Hopkins University scientist. .

Tracking hospitalization rates that provide an indication of disease severity is key, said the division chief of infectious diseases and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, while emphasizing that no one is safe from Covid until everyone in the world is vaccinated.

She cited the example of an Omicron variant to support her point.

He believes the highly contagious variant emerged in November last year in South Africa and Botswana due to insufficient immunization in African countries before spreading globally, Gupta said, adding that the other variant is likely to follow the same trend.

Inequality in global vaccines remains a problem within India and globally. For example, on the continent of Africa, less than 20 percent of the population is currently vaccinated and there are countries in Africa that are still less than 2 percent immunized, Gupta said in an email interview.

With immunity waning and new variants of Covid emerging, it is more important than ever that communities are fully vaccinated and strengthened, she said.

Full vaccination is not sufficient only for a few countries. She added that health workers and the most vulnerable populations in all countries must be fully vaccinated to stop the epidemic.