Vaccine immunity ‘won’t just disappear’ in face of Covid variants – expert

New variants are unlikely to send the country back to square one, a member of the JCVI has said (Yui Mok/PA)

Imported coronavirus variants are unlikely to set lockdown easing back to “square one” because immunity from vaccines “won’t just disappear”, according to a key figure on the UK’s immunisation committee.

Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said he expected a “gradual erosion” of vaccine protection as the virus evolves but not enough to “scupper” the British Prime Minister’s road map, as one leading scientist had predicted.