UK scientists believe it is 'almost certain' a coronavirus variant will emerge that beats current vaccines

An analysis published by the UK government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) says they believe it is "almost certain" that a SARS-Cov-2 variant will emerge that "leads to current vaccine failure," CNN reported Sunday.

The scientists write that because eradication of the virus is "unlikely," they have "high confidence" that variants will continue to emerge, adding there will be "a gradual or punctuated accumulation of antigenic variation that eventually leads to current vaccine failure."

The views were expressed in a paper "by group of academics on scenarios for the longer term evolution of SARS-CoV-2."

They write that some variants that have emerged over the past few months "show a reduced susceptibility to vaccine-acquired immunity, though none appears to escape entirely."

But they caution that these variants emerged "before vaccination was widespread," and that "as vaccines become more widespread, the transmission advantage gained by a virus that can evade vaccine-acquired immunity will increase."

The scientists recommend that authorities continue to reduce virus transmission as much as possible to reduce the chance of a new, vaccine-resistant variant.