A Cautionary Tale from the Seychelles Islands

 

With over 60% of its inhabitants fully vaccinated against COVID-19 you would think the Seychelles Islands would be skating to the end of the pandemic.  Yet that is not what's happening.

Here is a helpful graphic Google threw up when I was researching articles on this:


Why is the most vaccinated country in the world experiencing a surge of cases and re-imposition of restrictions? Nobody is sure. Officials are speculating that gatherings around Easter may be to blame.

A worrisome fact is that one-third of the cases are among people who have received two doses of China's Sinopharm vaccine. The manufacturer rates its effectiveness at 79%. 

That figure would put it about 15% less effective than the Moderna and Pfizer shots. Though scientists have cautioned that it's not appropriate to compare effectiveness across vaccines that were tested under different protocols, we do have the recent statement by a Chinese official saying that the country's vaccines aren't very effective.

Whatever the explanation, this is a cautionary tale emphasizing that this is no time to be eating marshmallows.  Even with a high vaccination rate, COVID-19 can flare up unexpectedly.

Image by Walkerssk from Pixabay 

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