There is “reasonable evidence” a Covid-19 booster shot will be needed in the autumn, England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said at a Downing Street press conference.
Responding to a question from a member of the public called Sara from Basingstoke, Professor Whitty said: “In terms of Covid-19 revaccination, there are essentially two reasons potentially to do this. One of which is if immunity is starting to wane and we don’t really know how long we will have to have between revaccinations.
“It might be a long period, it might be short. It is too early really to tell.
“And the second reason is if we end up with variants of the virus that can escape around the immunity which the vaccine provides.
“There’s, I think, reasonable evidence that we may have to do that this year because there are several variants that look very similar to one another in many ways which actually could have slightly reduced – not completely reduced but slightly reduced or in some cases more than slightly reduced – effectiveness from the vaccine.
“In which case we then redesign the vaccine – scientists redesign the vaccine – and that allows us to revaccinate against the new variant.”
