World Must Control Pandemic in 2022 or Face Danger From Virus Variants - US Official

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th October, 2021) Governments around the world must get the coronavirus pandemic under control next year or risk seeing the virus mutate into new, unpredictable and potentially more dangerous forms, US Agency for International Development (USAID) COVID-19 Task Force Executive Director Jeremy Konyndyk said on Wednesday.

"We can control this pandemic in the next year or we can let it run for several more years," Konyndyk said. "The longer we let it run, the greater the risks: We have seen this with the Delta variant."

However, USAID official Sarah Charles, assistant to the administrator of the agency's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, cautioned that neither the United States nor other governments around the world had generated enough collective credibility to generate the popular support and political will needed to suppress the pandemic.

"We need to get to that 70% vaccination level in all the countries. We do not have enough political capital globally ... The questions about hesitancy and vaccine deliverance are real. The prognosis is positive but we've got a tremendous amount of work to do in 2022," she said.

Konyndyk emphasized that trust in governments around the world remained a "really important factor." He said popular compliance with public health measures ensured far greater effectiveness and he cautioned that without widespread trust in government it was far harder to control the pandemic.