I've heard more than one medical expert speculate exactly that, that we may be looking at annual boosters to handle whatever harmful gene mutations may have emerged since the last time. (Also, they still don't know how long the effects of these vaccines will last.)
The good thing about the vaccines that are based on mRNA technology, though, are that they can basically do a 'cut and paste' for the modified sections of the vaccine that correspond to the mutations in the virus (e.g. the ends of the 'spikes' that allow them to attach to cells). So they're not starting from scratch every time, like they have in the past when new diseases have emerged. That research is what was already in the works for many years and what allowed some of these vaccines to get produced so quickly for the SARS-Cov-2 virus.
It's pretty amazing stuff, when ya think about it!
|