Vaccine slowdown in the wealthy west can cause the next disaster of the Covid crisis

Despite the recent increase in vaccination doses, the reality that most countries do not meet their 80-90% target during the spread of delta variants poses a serious threat. Not only does it affect the rate at which these particular countries say goodbye to Covid, but it also creates the opportunity for the virus to spread, mutate and cross-border countries with low vaccination rates at the global level. In other words, it can cause the next disaster in this pandemic.

In the UK, these dynamics have been demonstrated many times in the heart of a diverse community.

Philip Granville, mayor of Hackney’s London Autonomous Region, said: “In the Turkish and Kurdish communities, there is high trust with doctors and the NHS, but bookings can be difficult. In the British community, with pregnant women. Sadly, false information is spreading about vaccines that affect fertility. ”

Granville, volunteering at the Hackney Immunization Center, has called the British government overly centralized by not allowing local governments to make decisions based on the knowledge of their communities. I criticized it.

“For many people who want vaccination, the message and rules were unclear,” Granville said. “It wasn’t the fault of the people on earth in Hackney, but as volunteers, I had to keep away those who appeared with my older relatives and ask them if they could have it. The sad reality is that people They have low literacy and digital skills, don’t really understand the rules, and turn their backs. They may just give up. “

Gabriel Scully, a former state public health official, explains that many Northern Ireland citizens do not trust medical services or government areas.

“Currently, there are three hearings about the horrific failure of medical services, the hospital’s waiting list is horrifying, and the sectarian nature of our politics is that certain groups are part of the government or another. It means that you have incredible distrust of the part, “he explains.

In Northern Ireland, the government operates on the principle of sharing power between the Republican Party (widely supporting United Ireland) and the unionists (who want Northern Ireland to remain part of Britain), and the group is marginalized. I aim not to feel that it is being done. The most radical purpose of either group is historically low trust in leaders from other groups, even when it comes to public health.

The reason for this is primarily social, explains Asher Salmon, Deputy Director of the National Ministry of Health.

“The problem is that some minorities in the ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic communities have strange ideas based on false information against vaccination,” he said. “There is also a problem in the Bedouin society, where distrust of the Israeli authorities is generally very high.”

Salmon also says that those with fringed political beliefs have been exposed to false information that complements their dissident, anti-globalist views. “Some people believe that the pharmaceutical industry has a vested interest in making the pandemic worse than it really is.”

Meanwhile, in the United States, false information and partisan distrust of authorities poses a challenge for some doctors trying to convince patients to be vaccinated.

Dr. Mark Horn, Chief Medical Officer of the South Central Regional Medical Center in Mississippi, said CNN has a “group of important and hardcore people who don’t trust advanced medical science” in his area because of their politics. Said.

“This is a very Christian and conservative place. I’m trying to explain to patients that they are Christian and conservative, but this is just science. One of the patients with diabetes said he vaccinated. He said he wouldn’t inoculate. I think it’s a political conspiracy. Even the people I’ve treated for 25 years say they trust me, but the vaccine and the science behind it I don’t trust it. “

One of the recurring themes in all these countries is that many young people are willing to be fully vaccinated, but they do not consider it a priority. This is probably due to evidence that the disease affects older people more dramatically.

“When asked why they hadn’t been vaccinated yet, only 4% of the group over 40 expressed concern about side effects, compared to 10% of the group aged 18-29,” she said. I added.

These may seem like a few, but why is this such a problem for the global response to Covid?

Bharat Pancania, Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Exeter, said: , Western England.

“Of course, we want to achieve 90% coverage, but this is a big order worldwide. When we reach 70% and stay there, there are many sporadic outbreaks that can overwhelm medical services. To make matters worse, there are mutant strains of concern that are mutated viruses. “

These mutations and changes in the disease risk making significant holes in vaccination efforts and undermine the efforts already underway in so many countries.

Simon Clark, an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Reading in the south of England, said, “Every time a new virus particle is created, the virus mutates and has the opportunity to build resistance to the vaccines we currently have. Not only are they at risk for themselves because they are not vaccinated, but they are also at risk for those who do the right thing and jab. “

If this is dangerous for highly vaccinated countries, it is a terrifying prospect for those who do not have enough jabs for their citizens. “The weaknesses of any country are a problem for all, as it is virtually impossible to prevent the virus from crossing the border,” Clark said.

All of this raises the issue of moral obligations in vaccinated countries and those offering third shorts to people, but other countries simply do not have sufficient doses. .. “There are certainly big questions about what to do if these high-income countries reach saturation, but there are quite a few people in poor countries who crave vaccination,” said data analyst Ray. Said.

Pancania added that “massive uptake around the world” is “shameful” if much of the world is unvaccinated and richer countries distribute their stockpiles. ..

What can be done to encourage these last holdouts to take the plunge and get vaccinated back in the US, UK and Israel?

“We have introduced a scheme that allows you to enter cultural venues, clubs and bars without taking a test without having a jab,” Salmon said. “The secondary benefit of passports is to encourage young people to be vaccinated, in addition to reducing infection rates.”

Horn says he encouraged patients to become good ambassadors, tell their friends that their family was ill, and share their positive vaccination experience.

Horn said he encouraged patients to be good ambassadors, told friends that their families had become ill, confessed how serious the virus was, and shared a positive experience with vaccination. increase.

“For those who are essentially distrustful of the state, they need more than doctors and governments. Many holdouts I have encountered see families get sick and vaccinated. , All that they were afraid of didn’t happen, “he said. Said.

But the next phase of this fight will be a difficult struggle that will occur as many countries suffering from vaccine hesitation enter the winter months.

All of these raise very alarming issues. If even wealthy Western nations can’t compete strongly with Covid, other parts of the world with scarce vaccines, poor infrastructure and poor access to credible information will end the pandemic next year. I hope that. ??