Researchers in Tokyo are developing a “dream” COVID-19 vaccine that offers lifetime efficacy, in what would be a game-changer as the fight against the coronavirus drags on into its third year, The Japan Times reports.
Soon after the pandemic began, in early 2020, Michinori Kohara, emeritus investigator at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, wondered if it was possible to develop a vaccine based on the tried and tested smallpox vaccine — which helped the world eradicate the deadly disease.
According to the Japan Times, at a time when it appears most COVID-19 vaccines will require periodic boosters due to a decline in recipients’ antibody levels, the creation of a vaccine with lifetime efficacy could lead to huge financial savings globally and give the world an upper hand against the coronavirus, which has infected more than 270 million people and claimed more than 5 million lives around the world.
