Dr. Clare Wenham: The pandemic will not be over until the entire world population is protected There’s an imperative to make sure that everybody round the world has at least minimum levels of vaccines at the same time, she added LONDON: Life worldwide will not return to normal for at least two to three years based on the rate of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, a health expert has told Sky News. Dr. Clare Wenham, assistant professor of global health policy at the London School of Economics, said the coronavirus pandemic “will not be over” until the entire world population is protected. “At the moment, the data is showing it’s going to be 2023 or 2024 before the global vaccines are distributed to everybody. That’s a long time,” she added. “This pandemic isn’t going to be over until it’s over globally. We’re still going to be living in some form of restrictions — travel restrictions, border controls — even when we’re vaccinated, until it’s over round the world. So there’s a real imperative to make sure that everybody round the world has at least minimum levels of vaccines at the same time.” Her comments came as the World Health Organization (WHO) urged the UK to pause its vaccination campaign once vulnerable groups have received jabs in order to promote a fair global rollout. Tedros Adhanom, director general of the WHO, has stressed the need for fair distribution of vaccines, and warned that a “me first” mentality would extend the pandemic and human suffering. Wenham said: “If we want to return to global systems of trade and travel, we need to make sure that the vulnerable globally are vaccinated.” She added: “From an economic standpoint, to be able to relieve border controls and go back to some form of normalcy we need to make sure people around the world are vaccinated so we don’t see these new variants created.”