Perhaps this means that all the test vaccines are going to have to be adjusted? To take into consideration this mutation.
If so, there are going to be more delays in any potential vaccine.
Some comments you may find of interest:
July 1 WHO Briefing /
transcript /
Press briefings
Jim Roope: (
20:46)
“Yes, thank you very much and hello everyone. I apologize for not having a question about the Mediterranean thing, but I do have a question about, as I understand it, there is no vaccine for a coronavirus, and this is the first coronavirus pandemic. So my question is, if there is a vaccine that is developed successfully for this coronavirus, and I’m assuming there will be. Will that help in developing a universal vaccine for the coronavirus, or just a universal vaccine in general? Would this be a great step toward that?
Dr. Michael Ryan: (
21:34)
Universal vaccines against respiratory pathogens are really the holy grail of our longterm hopes. We’ve spent many decades thinking and hoping for a universal vaccine against influenza, and that has not been achieved. Although, much work is currently underway to develop such a universal vaccine, and that work is funded by many agencies around the world, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. So, identifying the targets in viruses that are conserved over time, in other words, sequences or proteins that we can develop vaccines against, that allow us to give a universal protection, are very important.
It remains to be seen whether a vaccine against this coronavirus would provide any cross protection against other coronaviruses. Many of the vaccines being developed are being developed against the surface proteins of the virus. There is a constant variation in those proteins, and therefore we would hope that the vaccines that are developed will be effective against this strain of the virus. It remains to be seen whether that would provide any cross protection. And I would imagine, given the longterm threat presented by coronaviruses and what we see out there in nature, that the longterm pursuit of more universal vaccines against [Sarah’s 00:23:00] coronaviruses should be a longterm objective in the vaccine development community.
But for now, we deal with SARS-CoV-2, and what we do need is a safe and effective vaccine against this virus. And as you know, many, many products are currently in the pipeline, many now in clinical trials. We hope that such vaccines will be number one, effective. Number two, safe, and number three, will be accepted by people around the world and be available for everyone who needs them. And those outcomes are not a given, and we have a lot of hard work to do in order to be able to achieve that. But yes, the pursuit of universal vaccines is a very positive idea, but as I said, it’s easy to say, it’s hard to do. We’re many decades into influenza control, and we’re still not close to having universal vaccines against that virus.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove: (
23:54)
Thanks Mike. Just to add, to say that I think this is a very good question, and it’s a good opportunity to say that the work on vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, began even before January, 2020 with the development of vaccines for SARS-CoV-1 and for MERS. And so, the work that began there was building the research capacity, building the techniques and the technologies that could be used to advance vaccine development as a whole. And so, in January, 2020, we didn’t start from scratch. We had a new virus, we had a new pathogen, and being able to know what that is triggered our work into focusing on SARS-CoV-2, as Mike has just said.
But the collaborations that began with scientists all over the world, with manufacturers, with production companies. That started before, and now we’ve enhanced that, and now we’ve accelerated that. Working towards a vaccine that is safe, that is effective, and that is available for those who need it. But I think we should pay homage to the people who have been working on coronaviruses for decades. There are a number of coronaviruses that circulate. And so, those that did the hard work for SARS-CoV-1, those that are doing the work for MERS, because MERS is still circulating in the Eastern Mediterranean region, and other countries as well. Any advancement we could make for a coronavirus vaccine, will get us closer to a vaccine for any coronavirus that emerges. Hopefully this work will pay off in the long run.”
