An international effort led by the University of Minnesota’s Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, published a comprehensive and cohesive framework and timeline to accelerate research and development into broadly protective COVID vaccines that are suitable and accessible for global use.
Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation, the roadmap was drawn up in consultation with 50 international subject matter experts and recognised leaders in the field of emerging infectious diseases. Among the taskforce experts is Professor Wang Linfa from Duke-NUS’ Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme.
The roadmap, which was published online today in Vaccine, identified five high-priority milestones relevant to vaccine development, including virology, immunology and immune correlates of protection, vaccinology, animal and human infection models, and policy and financing.
Speaking during the virtual launch of the framework that would take place in April, Wang highlighted that to develop a better vaccine, we need to understand the virus better.
“This is the largest single-stand RNA virus and because of their large genome, coronaviruses mutate easily and are prone to recombination,” said Wang.
And while many of coronaviruses originate from bats, they commonly infect an intermediate host — which enables viruses to adapt for easier transmission and amplifies them — before they trigger a sustained spillover into humans.
That’s why, Wang believes, the best way to prevent a pandemic is to screen intermediate hosts to pick up emerging viral threats. To do that, Wang called for precision serological surveillance tools that can pick up antibodies even after the virus has been eliminated by the immune system.
“This will give us a much more sensitive approach and a broader picture of the prevalence, dynamics and transmission patterns of these viruses,” explained Wang.
If preventing the spillover into humans is not possible, added Wang, the next best preventative strategy would be an early warning system which relies on surveillance in hospitals and communities, so that immediate containment strategies can be deployed.
In the hospitals, surveillance should focus on patients who become severely sick from an illness with no known origin who have had contact with animals, outlined Wang. In the community, the alarm bells should be triggered by any cluster of cases that may or may not have severe disease but that share common symptoms, where the disease has no known origin and links to animals are documented.
“In such a situation, we could create a defensive ring if we now take the time to develop tools such as broadly protective vaccines and virus neutralising antibodies,” says Wang. “And to do that, we need to establish a transparent and active, internationally collaborative network during peace time.”