Covid-19 Variants Can Ruin Summer If We Let Them
Europe needs to turbocharge vaccine campaigns and development, while investing in gene-sequencing, treatments and hospital resources to be ready for the next wave.
Let’s avoid another lockdown.
Photographer: Jeff Pachoud/AFPIt’s been a year since Covid-19 first shut down much of Europe, and signs of preparation for a post-pandemic world are everywhere. Whether it’s the heated discussion over vaccine passport, the U.K. starting on its latest path out of lockdown or investors dumping safe-haven assets, there’s faith that the most ambitious vaccination campaign in history is going to deliver a reopening of our economies this summer.
Plenty of supporting evidence bolsters that view, but there’s also debate over whether it really will be such a straight shot. The spread of variants more resistant to some existing vaccines is a potential cause for concern, given they might stall the lifting of restrictions or even undermine inoculation drives underway.