Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech have applied for emergency use authorisations for their Covid vaccines, which means they may soon be available to the public. However, health economist and epidemiologist Ramanan Laxminarayan, in an interview with Geetika Srivastava, says that masks and small gatherings may stick around for a while, even after vaccination, until the epidemic curve is bent and the case load starts to decrease.
He is the founder and director of the Washington-based Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, and has previously served in Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and for the Indian