Covid-19 ‘variants of concern’ have changed the game – and vaccines alone may not be enough Members of the Lancet Covid-19 Commission Taskforce on Public Health have called for urgent action in response to the new variants. Many countries lack the capacity to track emerging variants via genomic surveillance. | Christophe Archambault / AFP At the end of 2020, there was a strong hope that high levels of vaccination would see humanity finally gain the upper hand over SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In an ideal scenario, the virus would then be contained at very low levels without further societal disruption or significant numbers of deaths.