Worse COVID Variants on the Lurk

In a recent publication Mr. David H. Freedman states that there is a big risk that more severe variants of Covid emerge. The underestimated scale of the pandemic would achieve a critical factor. The more people are infected by a virus, the more likely it is that it will develop significant mutations. Worldwide millions of people are infected. Catalyst are: 1)  the infectiousness of the Delta variant, 2) the large number of people that refuse  or are unable to get vaccinated. This leaves them primed to become living COVID-19 mutation labs. This creates conditions that are ripe to produce yet more, potentially more dangerous, variants in the coming months.

Face masks and social distancing will not be enough to prevent this from happening says Preeti Malani, a physician and infectious disease researcher and chief health officer at the University of Michigan. “Vaccines are the key, and vaccine hesitancy is the obstacle.”

COVID-19 will be with us for the foreseeable future, just like the flu. A huge increase of vaccination rates would prevent dangerous variants from emerging. If this could be achieved, the focus can be on occasional new vaccines or booster shots that make COVID-19 a relatively tame threat.