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Two-thirds of epidemiologists from leading academic institutions say the world will need new or modified vaccines for COVID-19 within a year, new research shows.

In a survey of 77 epidemiologists from 28 countries by the People's Vaccine Alliance, 66.2 percent predicted that the world has a year or less before variants make current vaccines ineffective. The People's Vaccine Alliance is a coalition of more than 50 organizations including African Alliance, Oxfam, Public Citizen, and UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS).

Almost a third (32.5 percent) of those surveyed said ineffectiveness would happen in 9 months or less; 18.2 percent said 6 months or less.

Paul A. Offit, MD, director of the Vaccine Education Center, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, told Medscape Medical News that while it's hard to say whether vaccines could become ineffective in that timeframe, "It's perfectly reasonable to think it could happen."

The good news, said Offit, who was not involved with the survey, is that SARS-CoV-2 mutates slowly compared with other viruses such as influenza.

Head over to Medscape to read the full story.