A pan-Coronavirus vaccine is the "ultimate answer" to any potential Covid-19 mutation, such as the XE variant which has been discovered recently, Professor Luke O'Neill has said.
Professor O'Neill, who is a Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College, was speaking this morning on RTE radio about the new variants.
"The holy grail is to get a pan-Coronavirus vaccine which will work against any variant and stop the virus transmitting as well. That's the real dream vaccine. Several of those are in development," Prof O'Neill told host Phillip Boucher Hayes.
Read More: Covid-19 Ireland: New Omicron XE variant 10-20% more transmissible, expert says
So far there has been one reported case of XE in Ireland which was brought into the country due to travel.
There is currently a trial under way for a "next-gen vaccine" which is being conducted by the US army, says Prof O'Neill.
September or October is the earliest time when these next-gen vaccines could come on the market for general use by the public.
Professor O'Neill also revealed that Omicron XE has three mutations that make it different to Omicron and its sister variant, BA.2, but that it still closely resembles the BA.2 variant.
"It isn't causing a major amount of concern because our immune system is hotting up to BA.2 and XE is very similar. Of course it is new and these extra three mutations are brand new which means we need to watch it very closely," O'Neill said.
In terms of transmissibility compared to previous variants, Professor O'Neill said that it's "10% more transmissible than Omicron which was four times more transmissible than Alpha or Delta."
"It's like a deck of cards and it keeps getting reshuffled," O'Neill said.
"You know an immune system can recognise the same cards, basically. So far the worry would be a new deck of cards might emerge, or a different kind of suit of cards might emerge, and then we might be in more trouble, but for the moment as I say it's the same deck of cards being reshuffled basically."
Thankfully the vaccines are continuing to stop any serious illness from any of the variants that have emerged so far.
"At the moment the vaccines are stopping serious illness against any variant so far...but again we have to watch it [XE], O'Neill said.
As of 8am this morning, 750 people are in hospital with the virus with 44 of them in ICU.
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