STOP WAITING FOR A VACCINE

We have to be thinking about a long-term pandemic

PROF DEENAN PILLAY

VIROLOGY DEPT, UCL

Prof Deenan Pillay, professor of Virology at UCL and a former SAGE member, stresses that we need a wider range of long-term strategies to contain the virus.

He said: “It is the mantra that we need to somehow survive until a vaccine becomes available.

“Not only is there uncertainty around that, but even when a vaccine becomes available, that vaccine does not infer 100% protection in everyone who is given it.

“We have to be thinking about a long-term pandemic – with ups and downs for maybe years to come.”

GOVERNMENT POSITION:

Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty has said the pandemic will be over only when we have access to either a “highly effective” vaccine or drugs.