"If the coronavirus mutates, the vaccine will have to be taken annually," Nemanja Despot Marjanović, a Serbian scientist with a PhD in engineering from Boston's Broad Institute, a partner institution to the prestigious U.S. University of Harvard, said in an interview with Kurir. He pointed out that there is no group of people who ought not to get vaccinated, adding that the jab is safe even though it was developed in record time. At the same time, he resolutely rejected all conspiracy theories spread by the antivaccine lobby in relation to vaccination.
The entire world is awaiting mass vaccinations. The available vaccines include the US-German jab (Pfizer), the Russian Sputnik V, and the Chinese one (Sinovac). We will soon have another U.S. one (Moderna), as well as the UK vaccine (Oxford/AstraZeneca). What are the criteria that people should use when choosing the vaccine for themselves?
"Two criteria should be followed. First, vaccine safety, and second, effectiveness. When it comes to effectiveness, we are interested in the number of people who didn't develop the illness that the vaccine should protect them from during the clinical trials that followed vaccination. Moderna and Pfizer are more than 90 percent effective, Sputnik V also stands at around 90 percent, while Sinovac is around 85 percent effective. Importantly, we should opt for a vaccine for which the manufacturing companies have made all the data available. That is not the case with the Chinese jab, whereas results are available for Pfizer, Moderna, and Sputnik. As regards safety, what's important to know is how many people the vaccine has been tested on. The Pfizer vaccine has been tested on the greatest number of subjects so far – over 40,000 people of different age and health status groups."
People are concerned that the vaccine has come out fast, and they are afraid that it might not be of high quality.
"I can understand the fear, but everyone should know that both Pfizer and Moderna have used a new technology, which is very safe. The clinical trials were also done well and weren't accelerated – the only difference is that there were no pauses in the testing of effectiveness. Also, vaccine production started as early as the initial phases of the clinical trials. In other words, there was no waiting for the vaccine to be fully tested before the start of production. Another important thing: all of the vaccines are DNA or RNA vaccines (except for the Chinese one), and producing such vaccines is generally faster than producing those that use inactive viruses or proteins to trigger an immune response."
Can these vaccines provide lifelong immunity?
"We cannot know that yet. This will be known once studies are conducted after vaccination, with results coming in in five or six months. What's also important is whether the virus will mutate. If the virus doesn't mutate, there's a good chance for long-term immunity. If, however, the virus changes, your 'weapon' against it won't work anymore. So far, we haven't observed mutations of such a scale as with the flu virus – which is why people need to be vaccinated each year. We are hoping that the coronavirus won't mutate and that we won't have to get vaccinated every year."
And yet, news has broken that a new and, reportedly, more dangerous variant has appeared in the UK.
"Let's first clarify a few basic terms in biology in order to be able to understand the latest developments. An organism is classified as living if it has the ability to reproduce, i.e. – in barebones terms – if it has the ability to replicate its genetic material. Mutations occur almost invariably during replication of genetic material, and it is mutations that drive evolution. So, during each replication cycle, a virus can mutate. As a result, all viruses mutate at specific rates during replication. This is not the first new strain of the coronavirus that we have identified – there have been a few already. What we have generally observed in relation to Covid-19 is that it mutates at more or less the same rate as most other members of the coronavirus family. The fact that the virus has mutated is not alarming in and of itself – this is precisely what we expect. The problem arises if the mutation in question gives the virus an advantage: if the virus becomes more infectious, then it becomes more deadly. So far we haven't observed that the new mutation causes higher mortality. When it comes to infectiousness, the data published so far, which is preliminary, could indicate that there is increased infectiousness. Having said that, we should wait a bit longer and observe this new strain before definitive conclusions are made. The third important thing is whether this mutation will impact on the vaccine effectiveness. Although this new mutation has occurred on the receptor targeted by the vaccine, I still think that the vaccines will be effective. Each vaccine preps the immune system to recognize a few different parts of this receptor so there are, in a manner of speaking, several lines of defence."
Are there reliable studies looking into who mustn't get the coronavirus vaccine?
"It was impossible to test everyone in the clinical trials of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. There were people of different races, nationalities, and age groups, with various health conditions, and no major side effects were seen, but that certainly doesn't mean that no one will have an unwanted reaction. Based on what we have seen in people who have been tested, there is no group that shouldn't be vaccinated. Of course, if you are allergic to a specific vaccine component, then you shouldn’t take it. Other than that, no further instructions have been issued."
Does the coronavirus have permanent effects on the people who have had it? Which organs are most affected?
"The heart, lungs, stomach, kidney, head are all affected. We are now looking at the effects of long Covid – we know very little and have yet to learn more. There have been cases of people having strokes, blood clotting, and heart attacks. Those are isolated cases, but we are aware that effects are there."
According to some estimates, the coronavirus will be around until 2022. At the same time, even more dangerous viruses are predicted for the future. Is humanity ready for that?
"The coronavirus won't simply disappear. We won't erase it; it will stay in nature. What will prevent it spreading is herd immunity, which means that no less than 50 percent of people in a population should be immune to the virus before its spread is slowed down. Immunity can develop naturally – we could do nothing – or by vaccination, which is better. So, corona will stick around, but since we're all immune, it will spread more slowly. I hope that this global coronavirus experience can help us be prepared if we find ourselves in a similar situation. Incidentally, there's a silver lining to this – the coronavirus is not as deadly as SARS was."
On conspiracy theories
'The claims about microchipping are unrealistic.'
How do you comment on the conspiracy theories surfacing every now and then in relation to vaccination? The antivaccine lobby is powerful.
"Conspiracy theories, such as the one about microchipping, are unrealistic. It's as if we're talking about a Matrix film. If our medical science really were so developed to allow us to put microchips into vaccines, we would live to be 170 years old. Where's the benefit in microchipping? Why would we put chips into vaccines when we're carrying chips around in our hands – our cell phones. They can track us all in that way. Of course there are side effects in medical science, but not because the science is bad, but because we are all very different as people. These side effects are minimal anyway, and a small number of people die due to vaccines. So, none of these stories hold up. Again, it's important to point out that, for example, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have a new production technology which, as it uses RNA as the trigger, considerably facilitates production under controlled conditions, thereby reducing the likelihood of some side effects which can arise as a result of how the vaccine is made."
(Kurir.rs / Boban Karović )
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