Additional booster vaccines against the coronavirus will be needed in the future, said a leading British scientist studying the virus. A booster is an additional shot that increases or renews the effect of a previous vaccine. Stimulants will be needed as the coronavirus continues to change or move.
Sharon Peacock is the head of COVID-19 Genomics UK, COG-UK. She said countries need to work together to fight the virus.
“It simply came to our notice then doses; immunity coronavirus doesn’t last forever, “Peacock told Reuters.
She added that scientists were already changing the vaccine to fight the virus variants as they are found.
Peacock, a professor at Cambridge University in the UK, said she was sure regular booster photos would be needed to cope with future variants. However, she said booster doses could be developed and given to people over time.
Peacock founded COG-UK exactly one year ago with the help of the British government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance. The group consists of public health experts and scientists from several British universities. He now has more information about the genetics of the virus than anywhere else in the world. In some places in the UK, COG-UK scientists have had sequenced over 349,000 genomes of the virus in a global effort of about 778,000 genomes.
There are three main variants of coronavirus, which were first identified: the United Kingdom, known as B.1.1.7; Brazil, known as P1; and South Africa, known as B.1.351.
Peacock said she was most concerned about the South African variant. Not only does it spread more easily, but it also has a change in a genetic mutation that can decrease immunity. This genetic mutation is known as E484K.
With 120 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide, it becomes difficult to keep track of all the different variants and names. So Peacock’s teams are thinking in terms of “constellations of mutations,” she said. “Constellation” in this case means a group of people or things that are similar in some way.
She explained that scientists are thinking “what mutations or constellation of mutations will be biologically important and different combinations that can have slightly different biological effects.”
Peacock added that she and other experts had to admit that they would be wrong about some of their COVID-19 predictions.
“One of the things the virus has taught me is that I can be quite wrong – I have to be pretty humble in the face of the virus we still know very little about, “she said.
“There may be a variant that I haven’t even discovered yet.”
Coronavirus has killed 2.65 million people worldwide since it began in China in late 2019.
There will be other pandemics in the future. Peacock hopes that scientists will take what they have learned from the coronavirus and be better prepared for the next global health crisis.
This is Susan Shand.
Reuters news agency reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
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Words in this story
move – v. Ta cause (a gene) to change and create an unusual feature in a plant or animal
ruleR – adj. happening again and again at the same time or in the same way
immunity – n. the power to avoid being affected by a disease
dose – n. the amount of medicine to be given at one time
alternative – n. different in a way from others of the same kind
sequence – v. a group of things coming one after the other
humble – adj. don’t think of yourself as better than others
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