The deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has said that people could end up needing an annual coronavirus shot to keep up with variations in the virus.
Speaking to Sky’s Sophie Ridge On Sunday, Professor Anthony Harnden said: “I think the new variants abroad are a real worry.”
He continued: “But I think we have to get used to this.
“We are living in a world where coronavirus is so prevalent and rapidly mutating there are going to be new variants that pop up in all sorts of different countries.”
Prof Harnden added: “We may well be in a situation where we have to have an annual coronavirus vaccine much like we do with the flu vaccine, but the public should be reassured that these technologies are relatively easy to edit and tweak, so once we find strains that are predominant, the vaccines can be altered.”
Prof Harnden said: “At the moment it is really good news that these vaccines we are delivering at the moment do seem to be effective against the major circulating strains and the variant strains in the UK at the moment.”
