Thread by @opinion

“Living” with Covid-19 has been talked about since the pandemic first began.

This so-called “endemic” phase would see Covid-19 look more like influenza, with regular vaccine campaigns and a focus on primary care. Not eradicated, but managed
trib.al/2ZghWvM

🇫🇷Paris is swarming once again with workers
😷Masks are dangling from wrists rather than noses
🎶Nightclubs are back open

It’s becoming clear that living with Covid will remain an elusive goal without a renewed boost to pandemic management trib.al/2ZghWvM

The reopening of Europe’s major economies is starting to hit a speed bump as cases rebound. Hospitalizations are on the rise in:

🇪🇸📈 Spain
🇫🇷📈 France

The more contagious delta variant is ripping through the continent trib.al/2ZghWvM

The speed of the variant’s spread matters.

The more urgent question for a Europe desperate to live with Covid has to be how to improve vaccine take-up, not which restrictions people should pick and choose
trib.al/2ZghWvM

France’s top vaccine official said the speed of the delta variant’s spread would require vaccinating 90% of adults in France, depending on the efficacy rates of jabs.

Apply that to the EU as a whole and you have 150 million more adults in need of a jab trib.al/2ZghWvM

The rich world begins to talk about booster shots, third doses and more ambitious vaccine coverage

But the goal of living with Covid has to address the huge disparity with low-income countries, where only 1% of people have been given at least one dose trib.al/2ZghWvM

Presenting Covid management as a purely domestic matter ignores the fact that Covid variants thrive in places where vaccine coverage is low.

Europe has a role to play in improving industrial production of vaccines trib.al/2ZghWvM

1⃣Health-care systems need better-paid staff and more primary care resources

2⃣Tourism-dependent countries might have to change course given two years of sub-par international travel flows

3⃣More post-Covid investment will be needed to fund the recovery trib.al/2ZghWvM

Living with Covid should be seen as a goal at the end of a marathon rather than a sprint.

Lifting restrictions needs to be a carefully-calibrated response to data, accompanied by a ramp-up in jabs.

Freedom Day will come — but it’s not here yet trib.al/2ZghWvM