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INDUSTRIES TO WATCH IN 2022
As we enter the third (and hopefully final) year of the pandemic, businesses will rise and fall depending on the extent to which the world returns to life as it was before Covid-19 and the extent to which it has changed life fundamentally. BY MARTIN HESSE
1. PHARMACEUTICALS The pharmaceutical industry is making billions from the vaccines it has developed to combat Covid-19. As the virus has mutated, these vaccines have lost efficacy, yet have continued to protect against severe disease and death. Will we need to continue to be protected by vaccinations and boosters if the virus, as the Omicron variant is indicating, evolves to become as mild as a common cold? Be wary of the industry overplaying the need for vaccines in this scenario, when most people will get protection from natural immunity. On the positive side, the strides made in developing the vaccines have opened the way for vaccines against diseases we have not yet conquered.
