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By Andy Bruce
LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - British people should expect to
receive repeated vaccinations against COVID-19 in future to keep
pace with mutations of the virus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson
said on Wednesday.
As vaccines are being rushed out across the world,
researchers are considering tweaks and booster shots to make
them more effective against new variants, some of which appear
to spread more quickly.
Among those most concerning for scientists and public health
experts are the so-called British, South African and Brazilian
variants.
"I think we will have to get used to the idea of vaccinating
and revaccinating in the autumn as we come to face these new
variants," Johnson told parliament.
Earlier this week Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Britain
had agreed to buy 50 million new vaccine doses specifically for
new COVID-19 variants.
The head of the Oxford Vaccine Group said on Tuesday it is
not yet clear whether the world needs a new set of vaccines to
fight different variants of the novel coronavirus but scientists
are working on new ones so there is no reason for alarm.
The Oxford vaccine developed with British drugmaker
AstraZeneca appears to offer only limited protection
against mild disease caused by the South African variant of
COVID-19, based on early data from a trial.
However, AstraZeneca said it thought its vaccine could still
protect people against severe illness caused by the South
African variant.
Britain has already injected over 12.6 million first doses
of COVID-19 vaccines and is on track to meet a target to
vaccinate everyone in the top most vulnerable groups by
mid-February.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed 2.34 million people
worldwide since it emerged in China in late 2019, according to a
Reuters tally, with Britain among the very worst-hit.
(Reporting by William James and Andy Bruce; editing by Guy
Faulconbridge)
