By Andy Bruce
LONDON (Reuters) – British people will expect to receive repeated vaccinations against COVID-19 in the future to keep up with mutations in the virus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday.
As vaccines are being chased around the world, researchers are considering adjustments and boost shots to make them more effective against new variants, some of which are spreading faster.
The so-called British, South African and Brazilian variants are the most important for public health scientists and experts.
“I think we will have to get used to the idea of vaccinating and vaccinating again in the autumn if we face these new variants,” Johnson told parliament.
Earlier this week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Britain had agreed to buy 50 million new vaccine doses specifically for new COVID-19 variants.
The head of the Oxford Vaccine Group said on Tuesday it was not yet clear whether the world needed a new set of vaccines to fight different variants of the new coronavirus, but scientists were working on new species so there was no cause for concern. .
The Oxford vaccine, developed by British drugmaker AstraZeneca, appears to provide only limited protection against mild illnesses caused by the South African variant of COVID-19, based on early trial data.
However, AstraZeneca said it thinks the vaccine can still protect people from serious diseases caused by the South African variant.
Britain has already injected more than 12.6 million first-dose COVID-19 vaccines and is on track to reach a target by mid-February to vaccinate everyone in the most vulnerable groups.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed 2.34 million people worldwide since it erupted in China in late 2019, with Britain being hit the hardest, according to a Reuters report.
(Reported by William James and Andy Bruce; edited by Guy Faulconbridge)