U.K. vaccine minister anticipating 'annual' booster COVID-19 shots to fend off variants

Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
(Image credit: NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP via Getty Images)

Nadhim Zahawi, the United Kingdom's vaccine minister, anticipates the need for people to get vaccinated annually to protect against coronavirus mutations, BBC reports. The speculation comes as the vaccine developed by the promising University of Oxford and AstraZeneca was shown to offer only "minimal protection" against mild COVID-19 infections from the so-called South African variant of the coronavirus in a not-yet-peer-reviewed study.

"We see very much probably an annual or booster in the autumn and then an annual [shot], in the way we do with flu vaccinations where you look at what variant of virus is spreading throughout the world, rapidly produce a variant of vaccine, and then begin to vaccinate and protect the nation," Zahawi said.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.