You can’t just rely on vaccines to stop a pandemic, warn researchers at Georgetown University. Experts note that it is still unknown how vaccines affect the risk of virus transmission, and transmission by asymptomatic people is not fully understood.
How to stop the COVID-19 pandemic?
In the pages of «Science» scientists from Georgetown University Medical Center point out that the key to stopping the epidemic is limiting the spread of the virus by people with asymptomatic infection and those whose symptoms have not yet developed.
‘Determining the actual viral transmission potential of people with asymptomatic and presymptomatic infections is in principle complex, but gaps in knowledge should not prevent recognition of the role of these infections in SARS-CoV2 transmission,’ the researchers say.
— We cannot rely on vaccination alone to control a pandemic. Vaccines are great at protecting people from COVID-19, but we don’t know yet how well they are at protecting against transmission, they explain.
According to the author of the publication, Angela L. Rasmussen, from a biological point of view, it would be unlikely that a vaccine protecting against disease would not protect against infection.
– But just as vaccines do not offer 100% protection against disease, they are not XNUMX%. effective in protecting against infection – emphasizes the researcher.
Moreover, vaccines are not readily available in all countries.
– Asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission is a unique challenge for public health and infection prevention. Ultimately, this is something we will have to pay attention to all the time as we enter the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the face of a decline in vaccine-induced cases, explains co-author Dr. Saskia V. Popescu.
Author: Marek Matacz / PAP
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