Illness could ‘peter out’ before special centre is built

CORONAVIRUS could “burn out naturally” so a vaccine is no longer needed, a former World Health Organisation director has claimed, as the Government announces it is spending more than £90million on a dedicated inoculation development centre.

Prof Karol Sikora, an oncologist and chief medical officer at Rutherford Health, said it is likely the public has more immunity than previously thought and Covid-19 could end up “petering out by itself ”.

“There is a real chance that the virus will burn out naturally before any vaccine is developed,” he wrote on his social media profile yesterday.

“We are seeing a roughly similar pattern everywhere – I suspect we have more immunity than estimated. We need to keep slowing the virus, but it could be petering out by itself.”

Her comments come as Alok Sharma, the Business Secretary, yesterday announced the Government would invest £93million on the UK’s first dedicated Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC), to be opened next summer, 12 months ahead of schedule.

A further £38million is being invested in creating a rapid deployment facility in the coming weeks, with the aim of ensuring any successful vaccine developed can be quickly distributed.

The VMIC, located on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire, will have the capacity to produce enough vaccine doses to serve the entire UK population in as little as six months, the Government has said.

Sir Mark Walport, chief executive of UK Research and Innovation, described the VMIC as an “essential new weapon in the UK’s arsenal” that would boost the race to develop a vaccine by scientists at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London.

Mr Sharma said we need to be ready to “manufacture a vaccine by the millions” when the breakthrough comes, and this funding will help that happen.