The pandemic of the unvaccinated
Several public health experts, including the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), have recently pointed out that the current coronavirus pandemic is truly becoming a pandemic among the unvaccinated. The Americas and the Caribbean region is being divided between countries that have access to vaccines and those that do not yet, that is, a two-speed pandemic, with countries divided between vaccinated or not.
The global data to date is self-evident. The unvaccinated part of society remains vulnerable to the coronavirus, while the vaccinated population is relatively protected. Those already vaccinated have a very different level of risk than those who are not vaccinated. Some vaccinated people can still get sick, but the risk of serious illness is much lower. This possibility, while not zero, is still dramatically lower than the risk faced by unvaccinated people.
There are populations that, although they want to be vaccinated, lag behind in vaccination rates for reasons other than anti-vaccine sentiment. This is the case in Latin America where only 15% of the population has been fully immunized. There are countries that do not even reach 1%, while others exceed 50% of their population.
The situation regarding the availability of vaccines is very different depending on the capacity and organization of each country to provide itself with the necessary quantity of vaccines. While high-income countries have enough readily available vaccines and must handle a significant group of skeptics to get vaccinated, the population of low- and middle-income countries struggle to get vaccinated in a dire scenario of vaccine shortages.
The longer rich nations neglect countries that have just begun vaccinating their citizens, the more likely SARS-CoV-2 is to evolve into variants that spread even faster than the Delta variant.
Available vaccines provide protection against the delta variant, particularly against the more severe presentations of the disease that lead to hospitalization and sometimes death. Most new cases are in unvaccinated people and official sources have said that 99% of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in the US and 82% in Spain are not vaccinated.
Despite the warnings of many experts, that the best protection against the virus comes from vaccines, still a part of the population of each country remains doubtful of receiving the vaccination. For those who say that vaccination is a personal choice, although it is true, they are probably only half right. Individualism can be costly in a pandemic. Although the individual decision not to be vaccinated can put that person in danger, it can also compromise those others who may get it. People get vaccinated to protect themselves, but they also indirectly protect their communities.
Countries like France, which approved a bill to require a health pass to access restaurants, trains and airplanes, have had crowded marches opposing the measure. Political leaders debate whether vaccine mandates should be implemented to achieve group immunity in a shorter period and revive economic activity, knowing the resistance of those who oppose it in the name of freedom.
A virologist at the University of Queensland in Australia, imagined our defenses against the pandemic as layers of Swiss cheese; Each layer has holes, but when combined, they can block the virus. In this model, vaccines were the last layer of many. Experience to date guides us to the need to avoid prematurely eliminating the other layers of protection, including many of the most effective, such as the use of masks in closed spaces, the increase in diagnostic tests on contacts and the subsequent isolation of positive cases.
This crisis is not over and it is not just the problem of a part of the population. We must all be in this together, and also fight side by side, if we hope to see the end of this long and troubled nightmare.
@santiagobacci
Originally published at https://www.elnacional.com on July 30, 2021
