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WHO chief tells Standard: Target surges where they strike

Ros Russell

COVID will threaten humanity for years to come and the answer is not to talk about ending the pandemic but to be ready to extinguish outbreaks wherever they erupt, a leading expert warned today.

Dr David Nabarro, the World Health Organisation’s special envoy on Covid-19, said that vaccines alone will not be enough, because the virus will mutate to overpower the protections offered by the jabs, becoming an ever-present threat.

“It may not be possible to eradicate it at all because, by constantly mutating, the virus is indicating its game plan for survival,” he told the Evening Standard’s Vaccine for the World. “Rather than talking about defeating the pandemic, why don’t we talk about being ready for Covid? Being ready means being able to defend against the virus when it starts to appear with a spike.”

Those defences should be a mix of vaccinations, hygiene practices, mask-wearing, distancing and test and trace programmes. “These things have to be brought together.”

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2021-06-16T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-16T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://eveningstandard.pressreader.com/article/281547998843336

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