We think about vaccination logically, not as a magical solution!

We think about vaccination logically, not as a magical solution!

Introduction

Among the many communicable diseases which threaten human life, only a few have effective vaccines. This could be a reminder that we should consider other alternative approaches in managing communicable diseases, specifically COVID-19 in parallel.  

Although vaccines showed some positive effects at first, their effectiveness has been fading over the past few months (1). Now many countries which have vaccinated a considerable percentage of their population face a high number of COVID-19 cases, such as the USA (57%), UK (67%), Canada (74%), Germany (66%), etc. (2, 3).

On the other side, some countries successfully controlled the pandemic within their own borders, even before the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines, such as New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, etc. (2).  

Body

Evidence has emerged that the efficacy of vaccines is too short, and after around six months, booster doses are needed; thus, a huge amount of money has been spent for mass vaccination, just for six months effectiveness. This seems somewhat unreasonable. The virus quickly drifted and shifted, shrinking vaccines' effect just in a few months. Up till now, we have seen some different variants of the virus, such as Alpha, Beta, Delta, etc. (4). All these variants have made new surges across the globe, leaving the vaccines in the dust. As vaccine manufacturers produce a new version of vaccines, a new variant will emerge, and this cycle continues to spine. Relying on the vaccine means repeating the booster dose every six months via updated vaccines. How long can we keep up with such a vicious cycle?

Now many countries in the OECD region and North America face a considerable surge in new cases and death rates after what they considered acceptable vaccination coverage.

Israel was the first country that vaccinated a high number of its population and showed a new surge after almost fully vaccinating 65% of the population (3). This happened after a few months with zero number of new cases (2).

Figure 1 – Trend of New Cases of Corona in Israel (2)