Imported coronavirus variants are unlikely to set lockdown easing back to "square one" because immunity from vaccines "won't just disappear", according to a key figure on the UK's immunisation committee.
Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said he expected a "gradual erosion" of vaccine protection as the virus evolves but not enough to "scupper" the UK's road map, as one leading scientist had predicted.
On Friday, Imperial College's Danny Altmann said "we should be terribly concerned" after 77 cases of a potentially vaccine-busting Covid-19 mutation first discovered in India were identified in Britain.
"They (variants of concern) are things that can most scupper our escape plan at the moment and give us a third wave. They are a worry," Professor Altmann told the BBC.
Prof Finn said he thought the immunology expert had been "a bit pessimistic" with his assessment.
"We've all expected evolution of this virus to occur from the start," he told Times Radio.
"I also think that we know from other viruses and previous experience that the immunity that vaccines give won't just disappear.
"It will be a gradual erosion. It won't be back to square one. I would be really surprised if that happened.
"So, I think, possibly, that interpretation is a bit pessimistic."
Yesterday lockdown restrictions in Scotland eased, with the ban on travel between council areas scrapped for the first time in four months.
