One jab to rule them all

Last month the UK government announced additional vaccine booster jabs for the over-75s and suggested a further shot is likely to be needed later in the year. But imagine if the next Covid vaccine jab you have were the last you would ever need. That’s a dream being actively pursued by researchers, who feel it could be possible to make a “universal” vaccine against the Sars-CoV-2 virus that would work well not only against all existing variants but any that the virus could plausibly mutate into in the future.

Some are thinking even bigger. In January, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, and two other experts called for more research into “universal coronavirus vaccines” that would work not only against Sars-CoV-2 but against the many other corona viruses in animal populations