Only science will deliver us from raging pandemic

We marked a grim milestone last week. Globally more than 3 million people have died from Covid-19. This is equivalent to losing 75 per cent of Nairobi’s population.

After the pandemic erupted in China, Covid-19 killed a million people in nine months. In four months another one million lives were lost. In just three months another million have died from Covid-19. Covid-19 claimed an estimated 12,900 lives globally last week. Countries like India and Brazil are in the throes of a deadly coronavirus surge. Daily global infection rates topped 855,000 last Sunday.

Rising infection rates and a surge in Covid-19 deaths are not what one might have imagined one year into the pandemic. Many would be justified to conclude that we are in a bad place despite the fact that we mobilised the best science and in just a few months pharmaceutical companies have produced hundreds of millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses. Moreover, as I wrote previously, advances in Covid-19 therapeutics are encouraging.

A huge factor in the surge of infections is the eruption of Covid-19 variants. Different variants have emerged in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, India and the United States of America (California). New data now shows that new variants such as the UK’s B.1.1.7 are highly transmissible but not linked to increased likelihood of severe illness or high mortality.

Covid-19 is an unrelenting grim reaper. Our best arsenal is science. Not scepticism and the viral untruths we are so eager to share on social media. And science has delivered a repertoire of effective vaccines, and in record time. Yes, some vaccines such as AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson have been reported to cause very rare blood clotting disorder. In the case of Johnson & Johnson, six individuals who have received the vaccine have developed a rare but severe blood clot.

Covid-19 vaccination prevents infections and illness. A study conducted in Israel, which has vaccinated 55 per cent of its population, found that a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine reduced infections by as much as 85 per cent. A growing body of evidence suggests that once you are fully vaccinated you are potentially less likely to spread the SARS-Cov-2 virus, which causes Covid-19. All approved vaccines prevent severe disease, hospitalisation and death.

All authorised Covid-19 vaccines are safe. The benefits of Covid-19 vaccines outweigh all the side effects, which are very rare. Vaccine hesitancy is understandable. People should take their time and ask all the questions they have. But we all must accept nothing but scientific facts in response to our doubts, hesitation and fears about vaccines. We must not submit to rumours and untruths peddled on social media networks.

We can and must subdue the coronavirus pandemic. Governments, citizens, business and civil society organisations must work hand in hand and campaign for wider vaccine acceptance as well as encourage the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions. Drug companies must increase access to Covid-19 therapeutics.

Our lives and livelihoods depend on the power of science to combat Covid-19. Untruths and anti-science propaganda will cause the pandemic to endure.

Vice Provost at The Aga Khan University. Views expressed are the writer’s