To end pandemic, 70% need to be vaccinated

WHO warns that the Covid-19 origins probe is being poisoned by politics.

The WHO’s European director warned on Friday that the Covid-19 pandemic won’t be over until at least 70% of people are vaccinated.

People wait in line to enter a vaccination centre in Barcelona, Spain. (Bloomberg)

The World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe Hans Kluge also said that one of his main worries was the increased contagiousness of new variants of the virus. “We know for example that the B.1617 (variant found in India) is more transmissible than the B.117 (British variant), which already was more transmissible than the previous strain,” Kluge said.

Meanwhile, WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan told reporters that efforts to uncover the Covid-19 pandemic’s origins were being hampered by politics, insisting scientists needed space to work on solving the mystery. “We would ask that we separate the science from the politics,” he said.