Scientists: "Current Vaccines Will Become Useless Within a Year Due to Spread of COVID Variant"

On the 24th, a quarantine official is placing the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine into a storage unit at the vaccination center set up at Yeomju Gymnasium in Seo-gu, Gwangju. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] As the COVID-19 virus continues to mutate, there is a diagnosis that current vaccines will become ineffective within a year.

On the 30th (local time), according to the British daily The Guardian, the international coalition of organizations including Oxfam and Amnesty International, called 'Peoples Vaccine,' recently conducted a survey of 77 scientists from 28 countries, with about two-thirds of respondents answering this way. One-third of respondents predicted that the vaccines developed so far would lose effectiveness within 9 months.

The survey respondents were scientists affiliated with prestigious institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, Imperial College London, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. They anticipated a high risk of variant virus emergence given the current significant 'vaccine wealth gap' between countries.

88% of survey respondents diagnosed that if vaccination rates remain low in many countries, the probability of variants with 'resistance' appearing will increase. This implies that even if vaccination rates are high in developed countries, variants can emerge anytime if other countries have low vaccination rates.

Currently, in developed countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, over 25% of the population has received at least the first dose, but in countries like South Africa and Thailand, vaccination rates are reported to be below 1%. Additionally, some countries have not vaccinated a single person.

Gregg Gonsalves, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Yale University and a participant in the Peoples Vaccine survey, pointed out, "New variants emerge daily, and occasionally a variant may spread more efficiently than previous types and evade immune responses to the original virus."

He added, "Unless the entire world is vaccinated (equally), we leave open the possibility of more variants emerging, including those that current vaccines do not work against. To respond to such variants, booster shots that reinforce existing vaccines will be necessary."

Max Lawson, Chair of Peoples Vaccine, emphasized, "The international vaccine procurement project 'COVAX Facility' has pledged to vaccinate 27% of the population in low-income countries worldwide by the end of this year, but this is insufficient," adding, "There needs to be greater awareness that limited vaccine distribution can be dangerous."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.