Are Seychelles vaccinations working? The most vaccinated country in the world has closed schools and ordered households not to mix.
It wasn’t supposed to be that way. In January, Seychelles, a tropical paradise on the eastern coast of Africa that wants to bring its most important tourism sector back on track, vaccinated its nearly 100,000 inhabitants. It first used a Chinese donation of the Covid-19 Sinopharm’s vaccine, then a Covishield donation, which was fired by AstraZeneca in India under licence.
To date, 62.2% of the population has received at least two doses of the vaccine, but active cases have more than doubled in the week leading up to May 7. The government did not provide the surge information but of the illnesses recorded, 37 percent were reported by the health ministry to be completely vaccinated.
There are also unresolved issues which are of global importance.
How ill are the ones infected? What was their vaccine? Does the mutation B.1.351, detected in South Africa for the first time late last year and subsequently found to mostly evade the AstraZeneca vaccine, dominate the archipelago?
If the Sinopharm vaccine is inefficient, it is poor news for countries like Zimbabwe, Indonesia, and Venezuela, who use the shot in their vaccination systems. Furthermore, if sick citizens receive Covishield vaccination, it may be difficult for AstraZeneca inoculation to be the majority of vaccinations shipped to the poorest countries under the Covax scheme.
In communication with Seychelles, the World Health Organization said that a vaccine malfunction could not be detected without a thorough evaluation and that the review is being conducted. The assessment has to examine conditions such as virus strains and the seriousness of cases.
Or might there be a different explanation? To date, officials have plainly stated that the figures shot up after Easter, and vaccinated people are taking fewer measures.
Regardless of the cause, the universe wants answers. As Daniel Lucey, a medicine professor at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, says:
“Given the widespread international use of these two vaccines, there are global implications for what is happening now in the Seychelles,” he states. “The variant B.1.351 or a novel variant must be ruled out ASAP by large-scale genetic sequencing.” —Antony Sguazzin
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Sufficient doses were already provided to adequately vaccinate 8.6% of the world population, but the spread was lopsided. Countries and areas with high-income rates receive vaccinations about 25 times faster than those with the lowest income rates. Bloomberg has modified their vaccine tracker to allow one in many countries to explore vaccine rates vs. Covid events.
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