- According to a World Health Organization official, the fight against the coronavirus in 2021 will be more challenging in 2020 due to new mutations.
- While current vaccines should be effective against new mutations, recently discovered strains are said to be much more contagious than the original.
- New mutations in the coronavirus have been found in the UK, Japan and South Africa.
According to many health experts, the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines is likely to end the global coronavirus pandemic sometime in 2022. Still, there will likely be millions of new infections and an untold number of associated deaths before we can put the coronavirus behind us for good.
Especially with the advent of mutated and more contagious strains of the virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that the fight against COVID could prove to be more challenging in 2021 than in 2020.
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“We’re going into a second year of this, it could be even more difficult given the transmission dynamics and some of the issues we’re seeing,” said Dr. WHO Emergency Officer Mike Ryan at an online event recently.
“Certainly in the Northern Hemisphere,” continued Ryan, “and especially in Europe and North America we’ve seen that kind of perfect storm of the season: cold, people going in, increased social mixing, and a combination of factors that driven increased transmission in many, many countries. “
Unfortunately, Ryan’s prediction is already playing out before our very eyes here in the US. Just like Dr. Fauci and other health experts warned that January is well on its way to being the worst month in the entire pandemic.
The US currently suffers an average of about 250,000 new coronavirus infections per day, a record five times higher than in early October. It’s worth noting that this increase isn’t just due to more widespread testing, as we’ve seen a corresponding increase in coronavirus deaths over the same period. Last Tuesday, the US reported 4,406 COVID-related deaths in a 24-hour period, a record figure.
More broadly, Ryan added earlier this week that the coronavirus pandemic should serve as a wake-up call of sorts for the global community, as future pandemics could turn out to be much more deadly.
“This pandemic has been very serious, has spread very quickly around the world and has affected every corner of this planet,” Ryan said a few days ago. “But this is not necessarily the big one. This virus is highly transmissible and kills people, it robs so many people of loved ones. But the current mortality rate is fairly low compared to other emerging diseases. This is a wake-up call. “
On how the US vaccination effort is going, The New York Times’ vaccine tracker reports that the US has received 30.6 million vaccine doses and 11.1 million Americans have been vaccinated so far. Going forward, the Trump administration recently said it will send more vaccine doses to states that can deliver them more quickly. States that cannot quickly vaccinate their populations will, in turn, receive fewer doses.
As a good example of the inefficiencies that continue to plague the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, Michigan has received about 831,000 doses, but only about 332,140 shots.
A lifelong Mac user and enthusiast, Yoni Heisler has been writing about Apple and the tech industry in general for over six years. His writing has appeared in Edible Apple, Network World, MacLife, Macworld UK and most recently in TUAW. When Yoni isn’t writing about and analyzing the latest happenings with Apple, Yoni enjoys watching Improv shows in Chicago, playing football and cultivating new addiction to TV shows, most recently The Walking Dead and Broad City.