First-generation "potentially incomplete" Covid vaccine: UK task force

Coronavirus: Earlier on Tuesday, a study conducted by scientists at Imperial College London found that antibodies against the new Coronavirus fell rapidly in the British population during the summer.

UK Vaccine Task Force Leader Kate Bingham said on Tuesday that first-generation COVID-19 vaccines "are likely to be incomplete" and that they "may not work for everyone".

"Even so, we don't know we'll ever get a vaccine," Bingham wrote in an article in the Lancet medical journal.

Bingham wrote that the Vaccine Task Force understands that “many of these vaccines, and perhaps all of them, can fail,” adding that the focus has been on vaccines that are expected to elicit immune responses in a population over the age of 65.

She said global vaccine manufacturing capacity is largely insufficient for the billions of doses required and that UK manufacturing capacity to date is "equally scarce".

Earlier on Tuesday, a study conducted by scientists at Imperial College London found that antibodies against the new coronavirus rapidly declined in the British population over the summer, indicating that post-infection protection may not last long and increases the likelihood of diminished immunity in the community.