The significant rise of mutations and variants of the virus that has struck the world by surprise, COVID-19, inflicts fear and confusion in healthcare professionals and scientists worldwide.

According to UK doctors and news reporters, as new strains of COVID-19 continuously emerge, the fear that the virus will become impossible to control also has begun to emerge across the world. However, specialists suggest that the infection rate can and will be reduced with the help of vaccines.

In light of this, professionals propose the idea of a situation in which an annual coronavirus vaccine, similar to the influenza vaccine, might be necessary to lessen and eventually eliminate the virus entirely. This new idea of an annual COVID-19 vaccine brings many different opinions from experts everywhere.

“The idea of an annual COVID-19 vaccine sounds like an effective solution to this virus, because with the precautions being taken in comparison to the amounting number of cases, the situation could become worse worldwide,” junior Claudia Gonzalez said.

According to studies and major differences between COVID-19 and the influenza virus, other specialists agree that COVID-19 and influenza are incredibly different and can’t be treated the same way, because the consequences will differ, and could be potentially dangerous.

“I think that with how it’s looking right now, it might have to come to the point of an annual vaccine. However, this virus is incomparable to influenza because the mortality rate and population sectors in which are being affected by COVID-19 all play an important role in making this decision,” anatomy teacher Ms. Olga Braceras said.

The many variants of the COVID-19 virus have a very high chance of further delaying our return to normal life and with new mutations that could potentially be more dangerous or contagious or even both, certain measures must be taken in order to prevent this deadly virus from spreading further such as an annual vaccine.

“Seeing as to how the vaccine has been effective so far, maybe the idea of an annual one could help prevent and even get rid of the virus eventually,” Gonzalez said.