Vaccine Creator Warns That Next Pandemic Can be Worst and Deadlier Than Covid

One of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine developers has cautioned that future pandemics might be more deadly than the present Covid problem.

Discussing the Pandemic

Prof Dame Sarah Gilbert, who delivered the 44th Richard Dimbleby Lecture, said the additional money for pandemic preparation was essential to avoid progress from being lost.

Vaccines may be less effective against the Omicron variety, she added.

According to Dame Sarah, people should remain wary until additional information is available.

"This is not the last time a virus threatens our lives and livelihoods," she added, "and the reality is, the next one might be worse: more infectious, fatal, or both."

"We cannot allow a situation to develop in which we have gone through everything we have gone through only to discover that the massive economic losses we have suffered mean that there is still no financing for pandemic preparedness," she continued.

Maintaining Progress

"We must not lose the progress we've achieved or the information we've learned."

She claimed that the Omicron variant's spike protein included changes that increased the virus's transmissibility.

"However, there are other alterations that might make antibodies produced by vaccinations or infection with other variations less effective at preventing Omicron infection."

"Until we have more information, we should exercise caution and take actions to slow the spread of this new variation."

Lower protection against infection and mild sickness, according to Dame Sarah, does not always imply reduced protection against severe illness and death.

Vaccine Rollout

She also urged for the quick improvement shown during the epidemic in providing vaccinations and treatments to become the norm.

She stated that there was no reason why a universal flu vaccine could not be created to eliminate the threat of influenza.

Travel Restriction

To prevent the spread of the Omicron, the government stated on Saturday that visitors to the UK would henceforth be required to take a Covid test before leaving.

Travelers aged 12 and up will be asked to present documentation of a negative PCR, or lateral flow test done no more than 48 hours before departure starting at 04:00 GMT on Tuesday.

After many Omicron cases were connected to Nigeria, the nation was placed on the travel blacklist.

However, a government-adviser scientist described the new travel rules as "closing the barn door after the horse has escaped."

Prof Mark Woolhouse claimed the new regulations were too late to make a "significant impact" on a potential Omicron variant wave in the UK.

Omicron in the UK

Prof Woolhouse, a member of the government's Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), told the BBC's Andrew Marr show that Omicron was "spreading pretty quickly" in the UK and that if current trends in the UK and South Africa continued in the coming weeks and months, it could supplant Delta as the dominant strain worldwide.

On Sunday, 86 new instances of the Omicron strain were reported in the United Kingdom, bringing the total number of cases to 246. On Sunday, 43,992 cases and 54 fatalities were reported within 28 days following a positive coronavirus test.

When Covid first appeared in China in early 2020, Dame Sarah - who was awarded a damehood in the Queen's Birthday Honours earlier this year - began developing a coronavirus vaccine.

With doses supplied to more than 170 countries, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is currently the most frequently used globally.

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