Are vaccines going to be yearly?



I’m not sure that answer is fully known yet.

Hopefully not, however we may get to a point that the virus is no longer endemic.

Flu vaccines are yearly because flu is always changing, rather than because we lose immunity.
 
Frijj said:
I’m not sure that answer is fully known yet.

Hopefully not, however we may get to a point that the virus is no longer endemic.

Flu vaccines are yearly because flu is always changing, rather than because we lose immunity.
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I reckon one every few years until you get to flu vaccine age. And by then it’ll be mixed with the flu vaccine anyway!
 
West_Winger said:
Annually I’d imagine given that the immune response from those who’ve had it seems to wane after 6 months. Suspect they’ll be given at the same time as flu jabs.
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There is evidence of T-cell memory kicking in so the presence of antibodies (or lack of them) isnt crucial if they can be re-activated. However given this is less than 12 months there is no long term data available. The obvious thing would be to integrate COVID and seasonal flu vaccination to enable better use of resources
 
Wouldn’t we only need the vaccine for a short period of time (in relative terms), as it will die off once we reach herd immunity levels?
 
It depends. The flu vaccine is every year but that is because the prevalent strains change every year. My pneumonia vaccine was a one off but some medical conditions require it every 5 years.
 
TDalt said:
Wouldn’t we only need the vaccine for a short period of time (in relative terms), as it will die off once we reach herd immunity levels?
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Ideally yes, but it's unlikely given the variation in symptomatology and ease of spread.
I think it'll be endemic within the population, with possible small scale outbreaks.
There's a bit of a misconception from some about what herd immunity is. Herd immunity doesn't mean that the virus is gone, it means we're at a level of immunity where any outbreaks are short lived because a significant amount of people are immune to it and the damage is much reduced.

Herd protection, rather then immunity, would be a much better phrase to use in the general public imo as it seems certain sections are jumping on the word immune and making assumptions.
 
rudd said:
Ideally yes, but it's unlikely given the variation in symptomatology and ease of spread.
I think it'll be endemic within the population, with possible small scale outbreaks.
There's a bit of a misconception from some about what herd immunity is. Herd immunity doesn't mean that the virus is gone, it means we're at a level of immunity where any outbreaks are short lived because a significant amount of people are immune to it and the damage is much reduced.

Herd protection, rather then immunity, would be a much better phrase to use in the general public imo as it seems certain sections are jumping on the word immune and making assumptions.
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To be honest you can call it anything and people will still be making assumptions without the first idea of the subject they are chatting about....
 

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