Alexander will lift more pandemic restrictions on Monday, and this is one promise to which he intends to stick. However, the so-called 'Indian' variant (in reality, a misnomer, as it is the natural tendency of any virus to mutate in any environment) is growing, and knowledge about its transmissibility or its consequences for the effectiveness of vaccines is uncertain. The government, by seriously considering focussed vaccination programmes in areas of the country where this new variant is widespread, and by thinking of concentrating its efforts in particular on multi-generational households, is tacitly admitting that there are socio-economic determinants which are making coronavirus an endemic disease in a number of places. Better late than never.
Perhpas it is superfluous to point out that the Global North could have alleviated the desperate situation in the Global South by re-distributing the vaccine stockpile ; encouraging manufacturing capacity of vaccines in the Global South ; a massive cancellation of debt ; and by re-considering patent restrictions. But we are where we are. the question needs to be asked: Does the scientific evidence, fraught as it is with uncertainty, really justify the further relaxation of restrictions, including those on travel ? These would only encourage the circulation of the disease and the development of new variants.