• Question: If Covid-19 is in a group of viruses and is similar to that group, why is it so hard to create a vaccine?

    Asked by anon-255514 on 19 Jun 2020. This question was also asked by anon-256666.
    • Photo: Emma Wassell

      Emma Wassell answered on 19 Jun 2020: last edited 21 Jun 2020 4:59 pm

      Hi Mads,

      One way to picture it is by swapping Covid-19 with something more familiar to you to understand it, like people and humans.

      Humans are a group thats part of an even bigger group called animals (just like Covid-19 is in a group of similar viruses and that group is part of the bigger group of all viruses).

      Humans are different to other groups of animals in many ways! They don’t have wings like birds do, they don’t have scales like fish do, and they don’t have trunks like elephants do.
      Just like this, the group that Covid-19 is in will have lots of different features to other types of viruses.

      But…. even though humans have a LOT of things that make them similar to each other, there are also lots of things that make them very different. Some have blue eyes and some have brown eyes. Some have blonde hair, some have red hair. Some are very tall and some are very short.

      What makes these differences are small changes in their DNA, their core, that makes each person who they are. These small changes are what makes Covid-19 so different to the other viruses in its group.

      So even though Covid-19 might have things that make it similar to other viruses, there are also lots of things that make it different and might be why it’s harder to create a vaccine.

    • Photo: Rachel Tanner

      Rachel Tanner answered on 22 Jun 2020:

      Hi Mads, You’re right that SARS-CoV-2 (that is causing the current pandemic) is in the coronavirus family, and is similar to other viruses in that family (like ones that cause the common cold). But we don’t have vaccines against any of the viruses in that family, so it’s not just a case of adapting an existing vaccine. Usually vaccines take around 10 years to develop, so scientists are working very hard to try to make and test this one more quickly (especially in my department in Oxford!)

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