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A UK task force has raised concerns that an early coronavirus vaccine “is likely to be imperfect” and that it “might not work for everyone.”
According to an article published in the medical journal The Lancet, Kate Bingham, Chair of the UK Vaccine Task Force, said: “We don’t know if we will ever have a vaccine. It’s important to guard against complacency and over-optimism. “
“The first generation of vaccines are likely to be imperfect, and we must be prepared so that they do not prevent infection, but reduce symptoms, and even then they may not work for everyone or for a long time,” he added.
Bingham wrote that the Vaccine Working Group recognizes that “many, and possibly all, of these vaccines could fail,” adding that attention has focused on vaccines that are expected to elicit immune responses in the population over 65 years of age.
He said that global vaccine manufacturing capacity is grossly inadequate for the billions of doses needed and that UK manufacturing capacity to date has been “just as tight”.
Meanwhile, British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said Monday that trials of its coronavirus vaccine started by the University of Oxford had shown “encouraging” responses among the elderly as well as younger participants.
Earlier on Tuesday, a study by scientists at Imperial College London found that antibodies to the new coronavirus declined rapidly in the British population during the summer, suggesting that protection after infection may not be long-lasting and increases the possibility of waning immunity in the community.
The Telegraph newspaper reported that the British government is working on the assumption that the second wave of coronavirus will be more deadly than the first.
