Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, on Thursday, Dec. 16, officials from the National Institute for Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said they are urging the pursuit of a universal coronavirus vaccine, explaining that there is a growing body of scientific evidence which, considered together with ecological reality, strongly suggests novel coronaviruses will continue to infect bats and other animal reservoirs, and potentially emerge to pose more pandemic threats to humans.

 

To counter future coronavirus outbreaks, the global, scientific and medical research community at NIAID said they should focus a major effort now on three goals: characterize the range of coronavirus genetic diversity in multiple animal species; better understand coronavirus disease pathogenesis in laboratory animal models and people; and apply this knowledge to the development of long-lasting, broadly protective coronavirus vaccines. (Pathogenesis is the manner of development of a disease.)

 

NIAID officials said this is the proposal made by physician-scientists, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Jeffery K. Taubenberger, M.D., Ph.D., and David M. Morens, M.D., of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which forms part of the National Institutes of Health. The proposal is outlined as part of a new commentary in The New England Journal of Medicine.

 

Though the universal vaccine is aimed at all coronaviruses (as opposed to just variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19) the announcement comes amid reports that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is now the dominant variant in the U.S.

 

The authors of the new commentary in The New England Journal of Medicine call for an international collaborative effort to extensively sample coronaviruses from bats as well as wild and farmed animals to help understand the full “universe” of existing and emerging coronaviruses. Such studies, they say, could provide early warning about coronaviruses poised to cause further outbreaks in humans. They write that carefully controlled human challenge trials, in which volunteers are exposed to coronaviruses, could yield a fuller understanding of coronavirus disease processes and inform vaccine design.

 

Despite the availability of safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines, the authors noted that it remains unknown whether and how permanent immunity can be achieved. They say SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, will probably continue to circulate indefinitely in periodic outbreaks, and animal coronaviruses of unknown transmissibility and lethality may emerge at any time.

 

Therefore, they say coronavirus vaccinology efforts must be greatly accelerated. The authors outlined the features of an ideal universal coronavirus vaccine that would provide durable protection from most or all coronaviruses for individuals of all ages and communities at large. To achieve this goal, they say fundamental questions about the nature of coronavirus protective immunity must be addressed, including what vaccine approaches best elicit rapid responses (antibodies, for example) and lasting immune “memory” responses that can defend against newly emergent coronaviruses.

 

“The still-raging COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the ever-present threat from new coronaviruses, necessitates the expeditious development of safe and broadly protective coronavirus vaccines,” the authors say. “This is a challenge that we must now fully commit ourselves to addressing.”