A universal vaccine that would work on all Covid-19 variants by targeting the core of the virus instead of just the spike protein could be available in as little as a year, researchers say.
British scientists at the University of Nottingham are developing a “universal” Covid-19 vaccine which, if successful, would end the need to keep tweaking existing jabs as the virus mutates.
Existing vaccines like the Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs target the spike protein of the virus, but their efficacy is expected to wane as this element of the virus mutates.
Already there is evidence they do not protect as well against variants containing the “E484K” mutation, such as those circulating widely in southern Africa and Brazil.
The new universal vaccines will also target proteins found in the core of the virus which are far less likely to mutate, meaning they would protect against all current variants and would theoretically have greater longevity.
Main Photo: A nurse prepares to administer Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Krakow, southern Poland. EPA-EFE/Lukasz Gagulski
Read more via The Telegraph
