The British government's scientific advisers have raised the prospect of fighting a forever war against the coronavirus saying the eradication of the virus "will be unlikely." And they warn "there will always be variants."
They hold out the hope that the virus may evolve in such a way that it causes "much less severe disease," but they caution that is unlikely to happen for some time. Preventive measures and restrictions will be needed in the meantime as there's a "realistic possibility" that vaccine-resistant variants will emerge.
And, chillingly, in a report released last week by Britain's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, otherwise known as SAGE, the scientists do not discount the chance of a new variant arising with the deadliness of MERS, another coronavirus which has a case fatality rate of 35%.
It was instead quietly snuck out among a glut of reports during parliamentary recess. Recommendations and comments made by SAGE bring home the simple reality — that we have not yet 'defeated' this virus," Whitford, a qualified surgeon, added.
In the paper, the scientists outline the chances that a new variant will evade current vaccines, saying that is "almost certain" to happen. SAGE's biggest fear is of "antigenic drift," small changes in the genes of a virus that can lead to changes in its surface proteins. Most of the vaccines in current use target the surface proteins of the coronavirus. The scientists also worry about the possibility of variants recombining to become more infectious.
