Opinion | New coronavirus variants have changed the game, and vaccines won’t be enough

At least three documented Covid-19 variants of concern are spreading fast around the world, putting vaccination efforts at risk of being derailed

A global strategy of ‘maximum suppression’, including continued public health measures, such as face masks, will be vital to prevent the emergence of mutations

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A woman gets vaccinated against Covid-19 in California, US. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:55pm, 6 Apr 2021Updated: 1:14pm, 6 Apr 2021

At the end of 2020, there was a strong hope that high levels of vaccination would see humanity finally gain the upper hand over Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In an ideal scenario, the virus would then be contained at very low levels without further societal disruption or significant numbers of deaths.

But since then, new “variants of concern” have emerged and spread worldwide, putting current pandemic control efforts, including vaccination, at risk of being derailed.

Put simply, the game has changed, and a successful global roll-out of current vaccines by itself is no longer a guarantee of victory.

No one is truly safe from Covid-19 until everyone is safe. We are in a race against time to get global transmission rates low enough to prevent the emergence and spread of new variants. The danger is that variants will arise that can overcome the immunity conferred by vaccinations or prior infection.

What’s more, many countries lack the capacity to track emerging variants via genomic surveillance. This means the situation may be even more serious than it appears.

As members of The Lancet Covid-19 Commission Task Force on Public Health, we call for urgent action in response to the new variants. These new variants mean we cannot rely on the vaccines alone to provide protection but must maintain strong public health measures to reduce the risk from these variants. At the same time, we need to accelerate the vaccine programme in all countries in an equitable way.