Vaccines may not be the solution according to Dr. Nathalie Grandvaux, professor of biochemistry at the University of Montreal, who raises doubts about the effectiveness of repeating them.
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“The ability (of the vaccine) to protect diminishes over time, so for now we are caught having to repeat the vaccination,” she explains.
They “protect very well against severe forms and hospitalizations, but only partially protect against infection and therefore the ability to block transmission,” she says.
The professor, however, assures that “it is the best we have for the moment in Canada and in Quebec”.
Dr. Grandvaux encourages the population to stop using the term “wave” because the virus is still there and, she says, and there is “this fatigue with the term wave”.
She adds: “Unless there is a new virulent variant, I really don’t think we’re going back to containment or other exceptional measures”, but “we have to admit that the pandemic is not over to get there. .,” she says.
She advises continuing to update vaccines to limit the spread of the virus.
Other types of adenovirus vaccines have also been used, such as Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax which is another technology and “traditional technology vaccines developed in China, Sinopharm, Sinovac, have not had a better result than messenger RNA vaccines in blocking the infection, so this is not the solution either,” she confirms.
The professor says that new technologies will be needed to block this infection.
Among the solutions currently being studied, a combination of several technologies is envisaged.
“Our governments should continue to put as much intensity into research for these vaccines,” she said.
She maintains that the real solution “is a strategy on ventilation, aeration and air quality”.