Three things countries must do to stay ahead of mutating coronavirus

A global, coordinated surveillance effort is required to make sure that the world is on top of the way the virus is changing, writes Sam Fazeli.

Count 2020 as a lucky year. This may sound odd given that the world grappled with a pandemic that has killed close to 1.8 million people and crippled many countries’ economies. The “luck” relates to the more than 90% efficacy of the two vaccines--Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE’s shot and Moderna Inc.’s candidate--that gained emergency approval after thorough clinical analysis. Enormous leaps in science and technology helped make this happen and could well speed the end of the pandemic. And more vaccines are on the way. Unfortunately, there is a risk that this early success leads to complacency.

 

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