The Delta variant of COVID-19, first identified in India, is becoming the dominant disease in the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist said on Friday.
Soumya Swaminathan also expressed disappointment that the 5CV.DE vaccine, the candidate of the company CureVac, has not met the WHO efficacy standard, particularly as highly transmissible variants increase the need for new useful doses. .
The UK has reported a sharp rise in Delta variant infections, while Germany’s top public health official predicted that it would quickly become the dominant variant in that country despite rising vaccination rates.
The Kremlin blamed the rise in COVID-19 cases on reluctance to get vaccinated and “nihilism,” after record new infections in Moscow, mostly with the new Delta variant, stoked fears of a third wave of the disease.
“The Delta variant is on track to become the dominant variant in the world due to its higher transmissibility,” Swaminathan commented at a press conference.
The variants of the coronavirus were cited by CureVac when the German company reported this week that its vaccine was only 47% effective in preventing the disease, below the 50% established by the WHO.
The company said it had documented at least 13 variants circulating in its study population.
Given that similar mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech and Moderna had efficacy rates in excess of 90%, Swaminathan said the world had expected more from the CureVac contender.
“We cannot assume that all mRNA vaccines are the same, because each has slightly different technology,” Swaminathan said, adding that the surprising failure underscored the value of strong clinical trials to test new products.
WHO officials noted that Africa remains an area of concern, despite accounting for only about 5% of new global infections and 2% of deaths.
New cases in Namibia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Rwanda have doubled in the last week, said the head of the WHO emergency program, Mike Ryan, while access to vaccines remains miniscule.
“It’s a trajectory that is very, very disturbing,” Ryan said. “The brutal reality is that in an era of multiple variants, with increased transmissibility, we have left vast swaths of the population, the vulnerable population of Africa, unprotected by vaccines.”
