The Vaccine: What if the virus mutates again?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Some scientists worry that a new vaccine-resistant strain of the virus could emerge. We speak to virologists about concerns that the UK's vaccine strategy could make an 'escape mutant' more likely.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.
Guests:
- Rhys Blakely, science correspondent, The Times.
- Paul Bieniasz, professor of virology, The Rockefeller University.
- Deenan Pillay, professor of virology, University College London.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips used: PBS, 10 Downing Street YouTube channel.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Despite the latest lockdown, COVID is still running rampant across the country. |
| 0:07.0 | The UK is like a giant Petri dish, teeming with different strains of the virus. |
| 0:13.0 | We have the mutation first found in Kent, |
| 0:16.0 | the one from South Africa, and now, as of last week, |
| 0:20.0 | one of the variations from Brazil. |
| 0:22.0 | You might think that we do everything in our power |
| 0:25.0 | to prevent new strains, new variants of the virus from emerging. |
| 0:28.0 | That's probably not the course of the UK has taken. |
| 0:31.0 | Scientists say new mutations are likely to emerge in countries that have handled the pandemic badly. |
| 0:40.0 | Is there a risk that the UK's vaccine strategy, spacing out the two doses by three months |
| 0:46.7 | rather than three weeks, could make a new mutation even more likely? That to me just gives the virus everything it needs to learn how to |
| 0:58.6 | evade immune systems. If my feared scenario were to play out, the vaccine will start to fail. |
| 1:07.0 | Could that happen here? And what do we do if it does? |
| 1:11.0 | You're listening to stories of our times from the Times and the |
| 1:14.8 | Sunday Times. I'm Manveen Rana. Today, the vaccine. What if the virus mutates again? |
| 1:36.0 | It's a question that first started to come up at Downing Street briefings two months ago. Good afternoon, everybody. |
| 1:38.0 | It's the 26th of November, a week before the second lockdown ends, the Prime Minister and Chief Scientific |
| 1:46.6 | Advisor Sir Patrick Valence are taking questions from the public. |
| 1:51.8 | Richard from Lancaster asks, will the new vaccines work when the COVID virus mutates or will new vaccines |
| 1:58.0 | need to be developed regularly akin to the flu vaccine? |
| 2:01.4 | I think that's probably one for you, Patrick. |
| 2:04.8 | We now know that as this press conference took place, a new, more transmissible strain of the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.