Vaccination against COVID-19 to prevent fatalities if virus mutates, expert says

MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. Inoculating against the novel coronavirus today, in case the virus changes in the future, will protect an individual at least against a fatal outcome, head of the laboratory of vaccination and immunotherapy of allergic diseases of the Mechnikov Research Institute of Vaccines and Sera, professor of the Department of Epidemiology of the Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University Mikhail Kostinov said. "Even if it [the virus] changes in a year, still an inoculated [individual] is protected, [the virus] doesn’t undergo 100% change. <...> In my opinion, a person who got inoculated against this virus, in about two years there will be another virus, [the individual] may get sick but there won’t be a lethal outcome because the humankind is already not aseptic. Now both the infection and a vaccine give us immunity, we met this pathogen, this virus, and a certain memory remains at the next meeting which aids survival," he said at a press conference on Thursday. According to the scientist, coronavirus mutations will occur for a long time, and one needs to think about changing the vaccine or creating a new one when the SARS-CoV-3 virus emerges. According to the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center, to date, 3,793,810 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 3,229,258 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 71,651 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation. Read more