New COVID variants

Fair access to vaccines

Global equity in vaccine access is vital too. High-income countries should support multilateral mechanisms such as the COVAX facility, donate excess vaccines to low- and middle- income countries, and support increased vaccine production.

However, to prevent the emergence of viral variants of concern, it may be necessary to prioritise countries or regions with the highest disease prevalence and transmission levels, where the risk of such variants emerging is greatest.

Those with control over health-care resources, services and systems should ensure support is available for health professionals to manage increased hospitalisations over shorter periods during surges without reducing care for non-COVID-19 patients.

Health systems must be better prepared against future variants. Suppression efforts should be accompanied by: genomic surveillance programs to identify and quickly characterise emerging variants in as many countries as possible around the world, rapid large-scale “second-generation” vaccine programs and increased production capacity that can support equity in vaccine distribution,    studies of vaccine effectiveness on existing and new variants of concern,  adapting public health measures (such as double masking) and re-committing to health system arrangements (such as ensuring personal protective equipment for health staff), and behavioural, environmental, social and systems interventions, such as enabling ventilation, distancing between people, and an effective find, test, trace, isolate and support system.

COVID-19 variants of concern have changed the game. We need to recognise and act on this if we as a global society are to avoid future waves of infections, yet more lockdowns and restrictions, and avoidable illness and death.

Others who contributed to this article are Chris Bullen, Professor of Public Health, University of Auckland, Jeffrey V Lazarus; Associate Research Professor, Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), John N. Lavis; Professor and Canada Research Chair in Evidence-Informed Health Systems, McMaster University, John Thwaites; Chair, Monash Sustainable Development Institute & ClimateWorks Australia, Monash University, Liam Smith; Director, BehaviourWorks, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University, Salim Abdool Karim; Director, Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), and Yanis Ben Amor; Assistant Professor of Global Health and Microbiological Sciences, Executive Director – Center for Sustainable Development (Earth Institute), Columbia University.

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