British “Vaccine Secretary” Nazim Zahawi said on the 4th that there are about 4,000 Variant coronaviruses around the world, and the possibility that existing vaccines are “very unlikely” to be ineffective against Variant viruses.
On the same day, British researchers launched a mixed vaccination trial for the novel coronavirus vaccine.
“The chances of an existing vaccine not being effective, whether for the Variant coronavirus found in Kent [UK] or other strains,” Zahavi told Sky News Channel.
The government official, who is in charge of the mass vaccination project for the coronavirus vaccine, said: “All vaccine manufacturers
are studying how to improve the vaccine to ensure that they are ready to deal with any Variant COVID-19.
There are about 4,000 Variant coronaviruses around the world.”
An article published in the British Medical Journal believes that despite thousands of Variant’s of COVID-19, only a few may change significantly.
According to Zahavi, the UK genome sequencing industry is the largest in the world, and has established a database of “all Variant coronaviruses” that “alveils us the ability to meet any challenges posed by the novel coronavirus this fall or beyond and develop a new generation of vaccines”.
A team led by Matthew Snape, a vaccinologist at Oxford University, UK, launched a mixed vaccination study on the 4th, and it is expected to obtain preliminary data on the human immune response in June for evaluation.
The trial included a dose of Pfizer-Biotech vaccine and a dose of AstraZeneca vaccine, which is separated from 4 to 12 weeks.
Researchers will analyze whether mixed vaccination is feasible or even more immune.
Snape said previous studies have shown that mixed vaccination is effective against Ebola virus, and he believes that this trial will prove that mixed vaccination is equally effective against COVID-19, and that hybrid vaccination is expected to produce a good immune response.
