Professor Wendy Barclay, a member of the Emergencies Scientific Advisory Group (Sage), said there is “concern” that the Covid-19 mutations mean vaccines “will not work as well as we hope they will”.

Mutations in the Coronavirus have caused the culling of millions of minke farmed in Denmark due to concerns that the genetic change may undermine the effectiveness of Coronavirus vaccines.

Professor Barclay told the BBC’s Andrew Marsh Show program: “The concern is that if these mutations appear naturally in humans or in animals and then the virus returns to humans from animals, if they affect the way in which the antibodies can see the virus, perhaps The vaccines that we are producing now will not work as well as we hope they will work on the virus, as the virus continues to evolve. “

But Professor Barclay, from Imperial College London, said that “this does not mean that vaccines will not work at all,” adding that a “adaptive and rapid response” vaccine may be the best option.

She said: “Because we may want to make a slight modification to the specific antigen, a specific elevation, that we include in future vaccines.”

“But it is too early to suggest at the moment that this will be the case. We really need to understand whether these mutations will significantly affect the way in which the antibodies can function.”

BioNTech CEO Ugur Shaheen said it was “absolutely essential” to have a high vaccination rate before the fall of next year.

“This winter will be harsh. So we will not have a significant impact on the numbers of people infected with our vaccine this winter.

“If everything continues well, we will start introducing the vaccine at the end of this year, starting next year.”

Shaheen said the goal is to deliver more than 300 million doses before April of next year, which could “really start having an effect”, with a bigger effect expected over the summer.

He added, “It is very important that we get a high vaccination rate before the fall / winter of next year, and this means that all vaccination and vaccination approaches must take place before next fall.”

“I am sure this will happen, because a number of vaccine companies have been asked to increase the supply, so that we can have a normal winter next year.”

BioNTech CEO Ugur Shaheen recalled the moment when he was told of the effectiveness of their vaccine, saying it was “very convenient”.

He told the Andrew Marsh Show program for the BBC: “As a scientist, you of course expect a sure possibility that the card could be positive based on the data we have so far, but there are always unknown factors.

There could be a scientific, biological or medical reason why the vaccine was not successful.

“We now know that our vaccine works, and it is likely that other vaccines will work as well.

“So this is really a message that not only changes how we develop vaccines, but also increases the likelihood that we will be able to control this epidemic.”

BioNTech CEO Ugur Shaheen said that more data needs to be generated to find out if vaccination against Coronavirus is required every year.

Asked if it would be annual Covid-19 vaccines, such as the influenza vaccine, he told the Andrew Marr Show on the BBC: “The flu is a little different, because we really deal with the flu every year, a different strain, or different strains.

“ Covid-19, of course, has some mutations, but the mutations are very different so far, and I don’t expect the virus to have a major mutation, which has been observed, for example, in influenza.

So the only reason for enhanced immunization would be if we realized that there was no protection after one year.

“It could be every year, every two years, or even every five years. So we really need to generate data to answer this question.”

BioNTech CEO Ugur Shaheen told BBC correspondent Andrew Marshu that vaccines could be combined if someone no longer had an immune response.

When asked whether the coronavirus vaccine could be used with other vaccines, such as the one developed by AstraZeneca, he said: “In the beginning, it makes no sense to combine vaccines, as each vaccine has been clinically evaluated as being the first vaccine enhancement.

This means that most vaccines depend on a first injection, and after three weeks, or after four weeks, a second injection. I will not be confused by that, because this has not been evaluated for safety. “

He added, “But after one year, for example, if someone received the AstraZeneca vaccine and no longer had any immune response, it could be combined with the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine, or vice versa.”

Mr. Shaheen said it was not known how long immunity lasted after a second dose of the vaccine, adding: “The response of the antibody may decrease over time, and we would expect it to decrease over time, but what is not known, how quickly will it decline?

“We collect this information and we will see it and if the antibody response, for example, after one year looks very low, we can do booster immunization, which shouldn’t be too complicated.”

The Health Minister, in Labor’s shadows, said laws were needed to address “illogical” conspiracy theories about coronavirus vaccines.

Jonathan Ashworth said there should be penalties for social media platforms that allow the spread of disinformation, and he urged the government to introduce the torts bill online.

Speaking on Sky Sophy Ridge, Mr Ashworth said, “I looked at my phone this morning and you could still find things on TikTok and so on.

So we want to work with the government and find a way to eliminate that. I think there will be fines for that. “

He said that fewer people chose to get vaccinated because of misinformation online was “the last thing we want.”

Mr. Ashworth called on the government to deal with “some dangerous and illogical things to combat the cleansing that we’ve seen spreading on social media.”

He pointed out that some “toxic garbage” conspiracy theories on social media indicate that the vaccine is being developed by “big global businessmen who want to use it to introduce microchips into people,” he said.

Ugur Shaheen, CEO of BioNTech, which announced promising initial results for a vaccine against the Coronavirus with Pfizer, said that companies have not seen any serious side effects of the vaccine.

He said the “main side effects” seen so far were mild to moderate pain at the injection site for a few days, while some of the participants had a mild to moderate fever for a similar period.

“We did not see any other serious side effects that would lead to the study being suspended or stopped temporarily,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marsh Show.

“We now have safety data for a percentage of people for more than two months, and we’ve been collecting data for more than two years, to see not only the short and medium term side effects profile but also the long term side effects profile.

“But so far the security profile appears to be quite benign.”

BioNTech founder Professor Ugur Shaheen has raised hopes for a return to normal life within a year thanks to his new vaccine.

Here he is talking to Andrew Marr:

Speaking to Andrew Marr, the vaccine founder said that it is not yet clear how much age affects the effectiveness of the vaccine, but that it will become so in the coming days: