With time passing, Covid-19 will end up causing mere cold, says Oxford vaccine creator, Gilbert. According to the inventor of the Oxford vaccine, the new coronavirus that is causing agony and death is unlikely to mutate into a version that can escape immunizations since there aren’t very many locations for the virus to go.
In a Royal Society of Medicine webinar yesterday, Dame Sarah Gilbert brushed down fears about a more lethal new type. Viruses typically become less virulent as they expand, and she sees no reason to suppose Sars-CoV-2 will become more virulent.
As the virus will continue to circulate as people protect themselves less Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, stated yesterday that all children who have not been vaccinated will contract Covid-19 at some point. However, Gilbert predicted that the virus’s effects would get lesser with time.
There is a gradual genetic drift of the virus, and like with many other seasonal coronaviruses, there will be gradual immunity emerging in the population, she added. Sars-CoV-2 will soon join the other coronaviruses that cause colds. Gilbert said she claimed that the vaccine-targeted spike protein could only mutate to a limited extent while still allowing the virus to enter human cells.
It won’t be able to enter inside the cell if it modifies its spike protein so much that it can’t engage with that receptor. So there aren’t many areas for the virus to travel where it can elude immunity while still being infectious, she explained.
Professor Sharon Peacock, the leader of the Covid-19 UK Genomics Consortium, which monitors variants, stated, “I expect there will be other variants evolving, and there is still quite a bit of road to walk with this virus.”