Will we get a single, variant-proof vaccine for Covid?

The goal of a universal vaccine would have seemed a fantasy only a few years ago. But not now …This week the government announcedadditional vaccine booster jabs for the over-75s and suggested a further shot is likely to be needed in the autumn. But imagine if the next Covid vaccine jab you have were the last you would ever need. That ’s a dream being actively pursued now by researchers, who feel it could be possible to make a “universal” vaccine against the Sars-CoV-2 virus that would work well not only against all existing variants but any that the virus could plausibly mutate into in the future.Some are thinking even bigger. In January, Joe Biden ’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, and two other experts called for more research into “universal coronavirus vaccines” that would work not only against Sars-CoV-2 but against the many other coronaviruses in animal populations that have the potential to spill over into humans and cause f uture pandemics. “We need a research approach that can characterise the global ‘coronaviral universe’ in multiple species,” Fauci and colleagueswrote in theNew England Journal of Medicine, “and apply this information in developing broadly protective ‘universal’ vaccines against all [coronaviruses].”Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Vaccines and immunisation Coronavirus Health Infectious diseases Medical research Microbiology Science Society World news Source Type: news