Global eradication of COVID-19 probably feasible, and more so than for polio, say public health experts
Main challenges lie in securing high vaccine uptake and response to emergence of variants
The global eradication of COVID-19 is probably feasible, and more so than it is for polio, although considerably less so than it was for smallpox, suggests a comparative score of technical, sociopolitical, and economic factors for all three infections, published in the online journal BMJ Global Health.
Vaccination, public health measures, and global interest in achieving this goal as a result of the huge financial and social havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, all make eradication possible.
But the main challenges lie in securing sufficiently high vaccine coverage and being able to respond quickly enough to variants that may evade immunity, say the authors.
To estimate the feasibility of COVID-19 eradication, defined as ‘the permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide incidence of infection caused by a specific agent as a result of deliberate efforts’, the authors compared it with two other viral scourges for which vaccines were/are available---smallpox and polio--using an array of technical, sociopolitical, and economic factors that are likely to help achieve this goal.
BMJ Global Health. Peer-Reviewed Publication (PDF file):
