AstraZeneca is busy making tweaks to their COVID-19 vaccine that should be ready by fall as an updated version that will address emerging mutant strains of the virus, BBC reports.
Calling it a “relatively quick process” that would only need “small trials” to make it available to the public, the AstraZeneca team said keeping up with the changing virus was a challenge, but one they can meet.
"I think the actual work on designing a new vaccine is very, very quick because it's essentially just switching out the genetic sequence for the spike protein,” Andy Pollard, from Oxford University said. BBC added that preliminary information indicates that the COVID vaccine may need a booster “every year or so.”
SOURCE: BBC February 4, 2021