Professor of the School of Systems Biology at George Mason University (Virginia, USA) Ancha Baranova on Thursday, July 30, told Izvestia about the impossibility of creating collective immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus without a vaccine.
Earlier, on July 29, Michael Ryan, Director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Health Emergencies Program, said that humanity will not soon develop herd immunity against the disease COVID-19 caused by the coronavirus.
Ancha Baranova noted that in most people, the SARS-CoV-2 virus leaves an average immunity, which completely disappears after three months. That is why, with COVID-19, antibody-based herd immunity is difficult to create. There is still an opportunity for T-cell immunity, but they are not yet very good at measuring it, the scientist explained.
“Because it is impossible to organize in such a way that the entire population of the country would take it, go into quarantine and get sick in three months. Only then will the virus be exterminated, because there will be no one for it to spread to, ”Baranova said.
According to her, a vaccine that will give immunity for at least a year can significantly bring humanity closer to herd immunity.
At the same time, a new vaccine against coronavirus will not have to be created every year, because it does not mutate as quickly as the influenza virus, the professor believes.
“The influenza virus has a huge ability to change quickly, its genome is specially broken into pieces for this. And it accumulates mutations very quickly. And plus the flu is capable of replicating in a huge number of hosts – in pigs, chickens, birds. Therefore, every year a new (flu) epidemic comes in an attempt to become a pandemic, ”she said.
That is why an annual flu vaccination is required, because every time you have to deal with a new virus.
“The situation is different with the coronavirus. Yes, it mutates, but it does not mutate at a terrible rate, but at an acceptable rate. The good news is that periodic revaccination against coronavaris can be performed with the same vaccine, and not every time with a new one, ”the biologist concluded.
On July 29, Assistant Minister of Health of Russia Alexei Kuznetsov said that the coronavirus vaccine, which was developed at the Gamaleya Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, is at the stage of state registration.
Earlier, on July 27, it became known that the second phase of clinical trials of the Russian vaccine against coronavirus, developed by the Gamaleya Center, is at its final stage.
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in the world exceeded 17 million by July 30, according to Johns Hopkins University. In the top three in terms of cases: the United States (4.4 million), Brazil (2.5 million), India (1.5 million).
Russia is in fourth place. In the country, the total number of detected cases of COVID-19 has reached 834,499 people, 13,802 patients have died, and 629,655 recovered.
All information on the situation with the coronavirus is available on the websites of stopcoronavirus.rf and access vsem.rf. The hotline for the coronavirus is 8 (800) 2000-112. In addition, information is available under the hashtag #WeWeTogether.