A specialist in infectious diseases said the global battle for a Covid vaccine could be lost if the virus mutates.
International experts spoke of the challenges to be expected as research into 11 vaccines enters the final phase.
At an event entitled The Global Race for Covid-19 Vaccines, infectious disease specialist Gifty Immanuel warned of the dangers.
“We have come a long way with this pandemic but with progress comes certain pitfalls,” he said.
“Every vaccine has an adverse reaction. All the trials are on a limited population so obviously we do not know the long-term adverse reactions.”
Despite initial results revealing a success rate of up to 95 per cent with some vaccines, Mr Immanuel said this can often drop to 50 per cent once larger groups are immunised and the virus is bound to become resistant.
“The virus right now is having a field day, it is literally feeding on us, but the day you put an effective antiviral vaccine into the system, into the ecology, the virus will fight back and there is a huge probability we might have a vaccine that mutates, like hepatitis B. It a huge area we need to look into,” he said.
“We know this came from animals, recently we have had mink infected. After passage through the mink this particularly furry animal made it much more virulent. Such a comeback could completely destroy what we are planning to obtain in a very heroic manner in such a short span of time.”
Research fellow John-Arne Rottinger told the online seminar, which was hosted by the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government on Thursday, that more than 200 vaccines have been registered and almost 50 were now in clinical trials.
“The world needs billions of doses and it takes time,” he said.
“Normally it would have taken nearly a year to produce the first lot. It takes time to scale up production and this is why groups have started procuring millions of doses, we have never seen this before.”
The president of the Public Health Foundation of India, Srinath Reddy, said more people urgently need training to be able to administer the vaccines, especially if it needs to be given in two doses.
“We believe 300 million people will be immunised by September next year if the anticipated vaccine programme begins in February,” he said.
“The big challenge will be in the health workforce. Having a trained healthcare workforce is going to be a very important element.
“The real challenge will be finding the people who can deliver the vaccine, we are not only looking at nurses and doctors, but medical and nursing students too.”
Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre in Geneva, said lessons need to be learnt from the pandemic.
“It is essential in the future we put money on the table so when the next pandemic hits we are not scrambling in the same way we are today,” she said.
Hours before the lecture, he University of Oxford announced its vaccine had produced promising results in older adults and was ready to move to the final trial stage.
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
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Match info
Who: India v Afghanistan
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Online: OSN Play (subscribers only)
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
