Britain’s minister of vaccine distribution, Nadhim Zahawi, said on Sunday that annual vaccination against coronavirus is highly possible.
“We probably see an annual increase or boost in the fall and then an annual one (vaccination), just like we do with flu vaccinations, where you look at which variant of the virus is spreading around the world,” said Zahawi to the BBC, according to Reuters.
As the outlet notes, the UK has administered more than 12 million doses of coronavirus vaccines so far and is on track to vaccinate all the most vulnerable groups by mid-February.
The occurrence of new variants of the coronavirus has prompted many health experts to request a faster distribution of doses of the coronavirus vaccine. The new variants are believed to be more infectious.
Although several vaccines, such as those from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, have been shown to be effective against the UK coronavirus strain, they do not appear to be as effective against the South African strain.
During the same interview with the BBC, Zahawi countered suggestions that the British government would use a vaccine passport to loosen travel restrictions.
“This is not how we do things in the UK. We do it by consent, ”he said. “We still don’t know what the impact of vaccines is on transmission and it would be discriminatory.”
Oxford University’s leading vaccine developer Sarah Gilbert said on Saturday that a version of the AstraZeneca vaccine that is effective against South Africa’s new strain should be ready in the fall.
“It will be like working with flu vaccines, so people will be familiar with the idea that we have to have new components, new strains in the flu vaccine every year,” said Gilbert.
Moderna’s CEO, Stéphane Bancel, said the coronavirus “will not go away” and warned that the world will have to live with it “forever”. Bancel said health experts will have to be on the lookout for new variants from now on to create effective vaccines.