The effort to vaccinate Americans against COVID-19 won’t be the final chapter in the fight against the pandemic. That’s according to an Oregon State University researcher who spoke to reporters Tuesday.
More than 1.1 million Oregonians have received a full or partial dose of a coronavirus vaccine, with thousands more added each day. But while the hope is that Americans will be able to return to near normalcy by mid-summer, that doesn’t mean the fight will be over.
Brett Tyler is a genome researcher at Oregon State University. He’s also one of the leaders of the school’s TRACE project, which has tested for the prevalence of the virus in cities around the state.
“If we vaccinate all Americans, but the virus is running un-checked elsewhere in the world, that creates a possibility of more and more variants appearing and returning back to our shores,” he said.
Tyler said the fight against the coronavirus must continue to be a global effort until it’s under control worldwide.
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