Global control of COVID-19: good vaccines may not suffice

The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled health and socioeconomic inequities around the globe. Effective epidemic control requires the achievement of herd immunity, where susceptible individuals are conferred indirect protection by being surrounded by immunized individuals. The proportion of people that n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Revista panamericana de salud pública 2021-01, Vol.45 (148), p.e148-e148
Main Authors: Eslava-Schmalbach, Javier, Rosero, Eric B, Garzón-Orjuela, Nathaly
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
coronavirus infections
covid-19
covid-19 vaccines
health equity
immunity, herd
Opinion and Analysis
sars-cov-2
vaccination
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Summary:The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled health and socioeconomic inequities around the globe. Effective epidemic control requires the achievement of herd immunity, where susceptible individuals are conferred indirect protection by being surrounded by immunized individuals. The proportion of people that need to be vaccinated to obtain herd immunity is determined through the herd immunity threshold. However, the number of susceptible individuals and the opportunities for contact between infectious and susceptible individuals influence the progress of an epidemic. Thus, in addition to vaccination, control of a pandemic may be difficult or impossible to achieve without other public health measures, including wearing face masks and social distancing. This article discusses the factors that may contribute to herd immunity and control of COVID-19 through the availability of effective vaccines and describes how vaccine effectiveness in the community may be lower than that expected. It also discusses how pandemic control in some countries and populations may face vaccine accessibility barriers if market forces strongly regulate the new technologies available, according to the inverse care law.
ISSN:1020-4989
1680-5348
DOI:10.26633/RPSP.2021.148