How Nigeria, Others Can Break Chains Of COVID-19 Transmission-WHO

The World Health Organisation has called on individuals across the globe to get vaccinated to avoid transmitting the Covid-19 virus, as it continues to escalate into a fourth variant.

The Chief Scientist of the organisation, Soumya Swaminathan, said this during an interview session aired on its YouTube channel on Tuesday.

He noted that the Delta variant which is the fourth variant is more transmissible than previous variants and has also been able to resist the antibodies in the blood.

She said, “Now, the good news is that all of the WHO emergency use listed vaccines do protect against developing severe disease, hospitalisation, and death due to Delta variant.

“The main goal of these vaccines is really to prevent severe disease because what we want is for people, even if they get the infection, is for them to recover from it and not become seriously ill. So, that’s something that all of these vaccines do really well.

“Of course, there are different levels, you read about the efficacy trials range from 70 to 90 percent but in terms of just looking at the prevention, severe disease in hospitalisation, they are all very good, over 90 percent effective.”

According to her, none of the vaccine are 100 percent effective in protecting against the virus, adding that they vary in the protection against getting the infection.

“The two very good reasons to get vaccinated is to protect yourself from getting severely ill if you catch the infection.

“Secondly, if you get vaccinated, you may still get the infection because we know that these vaccines are not going to protect you 100 percent from the infection but there is a small risk of getting infected and you could pass it on to others. Why do you want to be one person in the chain of transmission?”

Speaking further, Swaminathan said that there is need for leaders to ensure full course of vaccination in order to promote complete immunity to protect against the Delta variant.