We haven’t really mapped Covid-19 yet at all. That says virologist Marion Koopmans on Friday afternoon in a podcast from Erasmus MC. There is no guarantee for a vaccine in the near future, she says.
One of the presenters, writes Erasmus Magazine, asks virologist Marion Koopmans: “From a scale of 1 to 10, how well has the virus been identified?” Koopmans responds: “Zero point zero, zero. A virus like this virus, especially if it keeps on circulating, keeps changing. ” So the virologists will have to continuously map the virus, says Koopmans.
Koopmans and her team, for example, already see different variants in the way the virus came in, but are not sure exactly what that means. Does it mean that the properties differ? We actually have to do the whole battery of initial tests again. ”
“We are at the beginning of a very long line of new research,” she says. At Erasmus MC, the virologists are “on the front of the knowledge that is available” because they have been researching coronaviruses for some time. “And really we should just be modest: we can do a lot in terms of research, but the virus doesn’t stop.”
About how certain it is that there will be a vaccine within a year, Koopmans says: “There are no guarantees for that. We are working hard on it. ” The first wave now seems under control, but we need to prepare for the next one, she says. Before that, she would certainly not only bet on a vaccine.
Sources): Erasmus Magazine Erasmus Podcast
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