Scientists have said that the Covid-19 variable, which is against the conventional crop of vaccines, is likely to appear at some point, but vaccines can also be changed “within weeks”.
The vaccines that have been distributed to more than half a million people in the UK so far provide protection against the new transmissible variable, but its emergence has raised questions about whether future mutations could be affected. on vaccines.
In mid-December, England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said as more people get the vaccine, there is likely to be a new variant that will be somewhat able to escape from the standard jobs.
Professor Robert Dingwall, a member of the New Respiratory Virus (Nervtag) Risk Advisory Group – which advises the Government, said: “I think Dr Whitty is absolutely right, it is it is a question of when or just if.
“It could happen tomorrow, it could happen in five years. The mutations, the changes, are largely random, and there is no way to predict.
“I think the only thing that can be said is that the coronavirus seems to be more resistant than the flu virus.
“When you have to make new influenza virus vaccines every year because of the sexual instability of that virus, with the coronavirus the process seems to be much slower.
“And the immunity that exists, whether it is a natural immunity because people have previously been infected with snoring, or the immunity caused by the vaccine, should continue to be recognized. and respond to this variation, and we should not worry that we have suddenly lost the ability to handle it. ”
Professor Dingwall, a leading medical sociologist who has studied genetics and evolution for decades, said he has seen reports showing that Pfizer and BioNTech could change their vaccines “in terms of within a few weeks ”.
Physiologist Professor Lawrence Young agreed that the jobs could change in “up to six weeks” to deal with stronger mutant strains, and explained why an increase in vaccines makes a difference variable more likely to appear.
Asked if this meant that the UK was now racing between mutations and the spread of vaccines, Dr Young said: “The scary thing is, we don’t know that mutations could others come somewhere and scratch things.
“What we do know is that if we can stop it spreading and get the vaccine, you can get the virus out before allowing more mutations – but it’s a race, completely. ”
Professor Young, who is also a molecular oncology specialist at Warwick School of Medicine, said: “There is another issue here, and that is what happens when you get a lot of people vaccinated.
“Because that could also trigger mutations in the virus, because as the virus grows and more mutations occur, you can see a situation in which the vaccine population, that vaccine, and that immune response. directing the selection of mutants not seen with the vaccine.
“So it is possible that you could end up in a situation where standard first-generation vaccines do not work because you are directing further mutation of the virus.”
Dr Julian Tang, a clinical expert at the University of Leicester, said the UK was “monitoring the norm by applying viral strains for most vaccine-preventable diseases” to ensure that change them accordingly.