Drive towards more effective vaccines may halt variants

Vaccines in urgent development could tackle multiple variants of the virus with some being delivered using a nasal spray, experts believe.

Professor Neil Mabbot, an immunologist at the University of Edinburgh, said some of the new vaccines could even halt transmission.

It is not yet known when these vaccines will be available, according to Mabbot but trials have produced promising results.

He said: “All the vaccines we’re using at the moment are based on that original Wuhan strain of Covid-19 and we’ve had several variants of concern since then.

“The vaccines are still holding up pretty well but the virus has mutated quite a bit. Omicron has so many mutations that it can evade some of that immunity and the next variant might be much more efficient at evading the immune system.

“One company has a vaccine in the pipeline which has eight different spike proteins on it with the idea being you can broaden the immunity that can be achieved. Trials suggest it can offer cross-protection against different types of variants of Covid-19 and against other coronaviruses.”

There are also around a dozen trials of new nasal spray vaccines which have advantages over existing jags. Mabbot said: “Injections into the arm are very good at preventing serious disease but are not as effective at stopping people getting infected.

“Nasal-delivered vaccines are better at protecting against infection itself. They can stop the virus in its tracks and reduce the amount of people actually getting infected.

“It’s a lot easier to deliver as well. It’s a quick squirt up the nose and off you go. It’s useful for those that are squeamish about needles.” Mabbot said Covid could eventually become like the common cold but more people must be vaccinated in developing nations.

He said: “We’re going to reach the stage where – either through vaccine immunity or a combination of that and infection-acquired immunity

– it starts to become no more concerning to the majority than the seasonal cold or flu.

“However, that relies on the entire world achieving the same vaccine status. We’ve got pretty good vaccine coverage here but there are parts of Africa where less than 20% of the population are vaccinated. Until we have equitable sharing of vaccines around the world we’re still going to get variants arising that will potentially cause issues.”

Mabbot also said governments should consider offering an autumn booster to the entire population, instead of only the over-50s and immunocompromised.

He said: “There is a gradual decline in vaccine immunity, although infection-acquired immunity provides some top up. Do we need to offer the rest of the population a booster? My personal choice is to offer it up to as many people as we can.”