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Britain could eventually move to a situation where it treats the coronavirus like the flu, with an annual vaccination schedule and no more lockdowns.
That’s the opinion of England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, who addressed a wide range of questions about the pandemic during a Royal Society of Medicine webinar on Thursday, April 1.
Professor Whitty said that while technology and the ability to adapt vaccines to new variants will eventually ‘find a way’, there is still a level of risk from the pandemic before then, so the approach had to be cautious. , ‘because we have such a difficult situation to go through right now. “
“I don’t think that although this should be seen as an indefinite position, I think it is a question of probably the next year or two as we understand how to do this and find a way to respond quickly to variations,” he added.
Speaking about the near future as the pandemic and vaccination program unfolds, he said, “Scroll forward two years, I think we are going to have a very broad portfolio of vaccines,” adding that technology can “turn a vaccine. in a new variant that is incredibly fast, compared to how historically we have been able to do it. “
“So I think technology will find a way to overcome this in the long term, but we have a period of risk between now and then,” he added.
The idea that any variant of the virus imported into the UK can be stopped “is not a realistic starting point,” he said. He told the webinar, “Anyone who believes that they can actually put a border policy or a blanket policy that stops the possibility (of variants) altogether, is completely misunderstanding the problem.”
The annual flu vaccine is given to older people, school-age children, and people with long-term illnesses that make them more vulnerable, and each spring and summer scientists tailor the vaccine to be a “ best estimate ” of which variant of the flu will be most prevalent that fall and winter.
About 30 million were delivered last year, and the prospect of administering both the flu vaccine and the covid vaccine together was brought one step closer this week, with the announcement that hospitals in the Bristol, Gloucestershire area, Somerset and Wiltshire were beginning to test the management of both. at the same time, and requesting volunteers.
In the short term, Professor Whitty said the rate R of spread of the covid-19 virus remains the most important measure. He said that while R is less than 1, the coming variants “don’t have much of a foothold,” but added that R is anticipated to rise above 1 as more things open up on the exit roadmap. lock.
As for the long term, Professor Whitty reiterated his statement that the coronavirus “is not going to go away” and said that the future will consist in finding a way to “minimize mortality without maximizing the economic and particularly social impacts on our fellow citizens.” .
(Image: PA)
While he said he cannot see a local locking system return, the emergence of a variant that may have had “unrestricted growth” could mean that an “alarm wire” must be pulled.
He said: “The only area where I think we are technically going to have to pull the alarm wire is if a variant of concern arises that we can see now revert to a situation where it could handle growth without restriction due to the response. immune. It’s just not there. “
Professor Whitty said that he will tell a political leader that it is not “his decision” if he thinks they are trying to make a decision that is not within his competence.
He said there is a spectrum with some decisions that are “purely technical” and others that are “completely political.”
He said, “Depending on how much, where I think you are on that spectrum, will determine if I really insert myself strongly into the discussion.
“If I think it’s primarily a technical decision and I think the political leader is trying to make it, I’ll say, ‘I don’t think it’s your decision.’
“Similarly, if it is primarily a political decision … I should not be the one trying to make a political decision for a political leader,” he added.
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