Experts warn there are three things in particular that could reverse all the progress of recent months and send COVID cases and deaths skyrocketing.
We’re getting closer to the point where many countries probably declare a sort of victory over Covid by categorizing the disease as “endemic,” but there’s a lot of risk. Experts warned there are three things in particular that, alone or together, could reverse all the progress of recent months and send COVID cases and deaths skyrocketing, potentially prolonging thehose are the three things we should worry about the most. The three things that might stand in the way of global endemicity.
Meanwhile, Africa is equally vulnerable. A billion Africans — 85 percent of the people on the continent — are unvaccinated. And just like in China, there haven’t been enough infections in most African countries to build up population-wide natural immunity. The continent has been lucky so far. That luck might not hold.
Omicron rolled across Hong Kong first, then neighboring Shenzen a few weeks later. After that, the viral wave spread north to Shanghai, prompting the government to impose one of its tightest lockdowns yet. So tight that it inspired angry public protests — rare events in increasingly authoritarian mainland China.
But the continent’s good fortune means that Covid vaccines are a fairly low priority. Just one out of six Africans is vaccinated — the lowest rate for any continent. Of course, the low vax rate also reflects many African countries’ relative poverty and poor access to pricey pharmaceuticals, as well as the faltering effort by richer countries to pool resources and buy vaccines for poorer countries.
Others warn that’s not a safe assumption. It’s also not safe to assume our existing antibodies and vaccines will keep working. So far, no lineages are capable of significant immune escape. But that could change.
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