Dr. Anthony Fauci says scientists are working to develop a universal coronavirus vaccine to protect against any coronavirus or variant, but such a breakthrough won’t come for years.
“I don’t want anyone to think that pan-coronavirus vaccines are literally around the corner in a month or two,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday during a White House briefing, CNN reported. “It’s going to take years to develop an incremental fashion.”
Fauci, who is President Biden’s chief medical adviser, said during a White House briefing that for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, there are currently five variants of concern: alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omicron.
“So obviously, innovative approaches are needed to induce broad and durable protection against coronaviruses that are known and some that are even at this point unknown,” he said, CNN reported. “Hence, the terminology pan-coronavirus vaccine.”