UK COVID-19 task force chair warns we might never have vaccine at all

The woman heading up the UK’s search for a vaccine has sounded a warning about the mammoth task “no one has ever done”.

Everyone’s waiting for the first round of coronavirus vaccines, but the head of the UK’s vaccine task force has warned we might never have one, and if we do it might not work that well at first.

“The first generation of vaccines is likely to be imperfect, and we should be prepared that they might not prevent infection but rather reduce symptoms, and, even then, might not work for everyone or for long,” Kate Bingham wrote in medical journal The Lancet.

“We do not know that we will ever have a vaccine at all,” she warned, reminding everyone “it is important to guard against complacency and over-optimism”.

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Laboratory technicians handle capped vials of the developing AstraZeneca vaccine. Picture: Vincenzo Pinto / AFP

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Ms Bingham is head of the vaccine task force created by the UK’s chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance in May.

One of its goals is to secure a coronavirus vaccine. It has now secured access to six of the more than 240 vaccines in development.

But Ms Bingham notes several of those vaccines, including the AstraZeneca vaccine being developed alongside Oxford University, one of two the Australian government has secured access to, “are based on novel formats for which we have little experience of their use as vaccines”.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine is based on “novel formats”. Picture: Paul Ellis / AFP

She did note initial data on those vaccines have been encouraging and they’re likely to be ready before vaccines “based on frequently used vaccine formats” and “inactivated whole viruses” that aren’t expected until late next year, if at all.

The UK government has secured access to an AstraZeneca developed “neutralising antibody cocktail” that is currently completing clinical trails and regulatory approval.

It’s designed to provide support for immunosuppressed people who can’t mount a response to vaccines and for people who require immediate protection from the virus, like healthcare workers.

Ms Bingham said the world needs to work together on finding a vaccine. Picture: Nelson Almeida / AFP

Ms Bingham said that if a vaccine ever does eventuate, the rollout for its administration will provide additional challenges, noting “no one has ever done mass vaccination of adults anywhere in the world before”.

She also said the requirement for some vaccines to be administered twice and for others to be kept cold at all times “adds to the complexity of this deployment operation”.

She added the world needs to work together on developing a vaccine in response to the global pandemic.

“There will not be one successful vaccine, or one single country, that is able to supply the world,” Ms Bingham said.

“We urgently need international co-operation to pool risks and costs, address barriers to access, and scale up the manufacturing capacity to produce sufficient doses to protect everyone at risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection globally.”