Coronavirus vaccine will not be a cure-all solution, according to a virologist. No clear evidence exists that antibodies can provide absolute immunity.
Robert Lambkin-Williams, an independent virologist at Virology Consult Ltd, warned that a coronavirus vaccine cannot completely fight the pandemic and serve as the sole solution.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe," he said the use of antibodies in fighting off the virus and protecting them from being reinfected with Covid-19 has not been proven yet.
“That’s important because we don’t know if the vaccines that encourage those antibodies to be produced are going to work,” he said.
He added that scientists still hope that antibodies would stop the coronavirus from penetrating individuals more than once.
However, even if antibodies provide immunity, Lambkin-Williams emphasized that the impact of a vaccine should not be embraced with too much expectation.
“The vaccine is not going to be a cure-all. We have not had a successful vaccine against this type of virus ever,” he said during an interview with CNBC. “We will get a vaccine of some description in the next couple of years, but it will not be perfect and it will need to be developed going forward.”
At least 141 coronavirus vaccines are being tested around the world and 16 of which are in more advanced clinical trial phase, according to the World Health Organization.
Sticking to mitigation measures
Lambkin-Williams asked the public to observe the guidelines set on curbing the spread of coronavirus because of the uncertainty the immunity and effectiveness of a preliminary vaccine remain uncertain.
“We’re going to have to adapt, and nobody should think that by Christmas it’s all going to be back to normal because in the Western Hemisphere, and the Northern Hemisphere particularly, we’ve got normal colds and flu about to arrive,” he said. “So we’re going to have this and two more respiratory diseases affecting us.”
According to Lambkin-Williams, the public should continue wearing a comfortable-fitting face covering, avoid touching their face, and practice hand hygiene to weaken community transmission of the coronavirus.
“The virus is particularly spread by touch, say if you touch one surface, you then touch another surface and then you touch your face,” he explained.
Lambkin-Williams stressed the importance of face covering because infected people were much less likely to transmit the virus on to someone else if they wore one.
“Wearing a face covering and using PPE (personal protective equipment) and hand sanitizers, all of those things protect at the community level, they’re keeping the virus down, and all the time we keep the virus down, we protect the individual,” he said.
“We can’t keep our economies locked down in the way they are. It’s not good for the economy and it’s not good for people individually because mental health is an extremely important component of anybody’s welfare,” Lambkin-Williams added. “So we have to learn to live with the virus.”
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the new strain of coronavirus has already hit at least 9.6 million people around the world and led to almost 500,000 deaths worldwide.
