Updating vaccines as soon as a new variant emerges is a losing race according to some scientists. Rather, they lean towards a universal vaccine once morest all forms of current and future Coronaviruses.
“New variants will appear every three or six months. »
Drew Weissman, of the University of Pennsylvania, judges the strategy of the laboratories lost in advance. Rather than adapting vaccines Has variants who are already claiming victims, he is working with his team on a universal vaccine once morest all forms of coronavirus. For this, he seeks whole virus fragments that cannot mutate easily. An arduous task because the virus is constantly mutating. Moreover, this is the reason why new variants appear and will continue to appear “every three or six months,” he told Agence France Presse (AFP).
The virus bypasses the immunity acquired through vaccines
After more than two years in contact with humans, thea Covid-19 bypasses immunity today acquired through vaccines. This is what has already happened with influenza viruses “which require a serum modified each year », observe Drew Weissman.
Fight once morest all coronaviruses
Covid-19 is the third coronavirus to jump from animals to humans following SARS in 2002 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012, AFP journalists report. The American biotech VBI Vaccines is targeting these three coronaviruses in the search for a universal vaccine. “We try toteach the immune system to develop the variations of the virus that he is able to ‘see’ from the start,” Francisco Diaz-Mitoma, VBI’s chief medical officer, told AFP.
