By Qingyang Zhang, Y13
On 19th December 2020, the Comirnaty mRNA vaccine from Pfizer and BioNtech was approved by Swissmedic to be used “without age restrictions for all adults”. Switzerland, with a population of 8.5 million, has ordered 15.8 million doses from Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna and AstroZeneca, and the first shots are already being taken. The Swiss federal government plans to vaccinate people against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in order to “reduce the number of severe cases and the number of deaths” and reduce the burden on the healthcare system.
The federal government has grouped the population in order of vaccination. The priority group, who will get vaccinated first, contains people over 75 years old and people with chronic illnesses of the highest risk; next are people between 65 to 74 years old and people with other chronic illnesses. Healthcare workers will be the second group to get vaccinated. The third group to be vaccinated are those in close contact with people in the priority group. Finally, people in communities with a high risk of infection will be vaccinated.
Pregnant women are not included in the high-risk categories, as there are mixed views in the scientific community on whether pregnant women should be vaccinated. There are currently no plans for children to be vaccinated.
The vaccine is free of charge, and the vaccine scheme is not compulsory. It is up to each individual to decide whether they want to be vaccinated.A persuasive national campaign will be the main method to increase the vaccination rate, especially for people with the highest risk of developing severe symptoms.
However, according to a survey released on 20th December, 35% of the people surveyed want to receive the vaccine. Will 35% of the population then be enough to reach the herd immunity threshold (where a sufficient percentage of the population is immune to protect the unvaccinated)? If not, will more people be persuaded to receive the vaccine?
The herd immunity threshold for Covid-19 is difficult to calculate, with estimates ranging from as low as 43% to as high as 70-90%. Therefore, there is much uncertainty in the percentage of the population required to be vaccinated. Another worry is that the new UK and South African variants of the virus might render current vaccines ineffective. However, the BioNTech chief Ugur Sahin says that the mutated species has 99% identical genetic sequencing to the original species, so it is “highly likely” the vaccine will work against new coronavirus variants. Even if it cannot, the vaccine can be rapidly adjusted.
Currently, vaccines will not immediately put an end to the pandemic. There is still much uncertainty around the success of the vaccine roll-out, the effectiveness of the vaccine itself, and the mathematics and science behind the spread of the virus. Therefore, consistent restriction rules will still need to be followed during the vaccine roll-out. Nonetheless, effective vaccination protects individuals from the effects of the virus and reduces its spread.
