UNITED NATIONS: World Health Organization Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan has said that the Corona virus mutations are not expected to alter vaccine efficacy. During a live Q&A broadcast on WHO’s social media pages yesterday, Dr Swaminathan said, the mutations have not shown to be in those regions of the virus – the spike protein, the receptor binding domain – that are going to alter the efficacy of a vaccine, so far.
Regarding how the Corona virus may differ across countries due to mutations, Dr Swaminathan said, the virus may be slightly different but it is not so different that the vaccine will not work. She added that it is also good to have vaccine trials in many different countries because there are different populations, different genetics, different risk factors and WHO would very much like to see the candidates that are being developed now being tested in many countries.
According to WHO, currently there are about 200 vaccine candidates in development around the world, with 10 in human trials – four in the United States, five in China and one in the United Kingdom and 126 in preclinical trials globally
