COVID-19 is still mutating and it will take some time before the virus settles into its “steady state” — meaning vaccination rates need to remain high.

That’s according to Newfoundlander and assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at Dalhousie University, Dr. Lisa Barrett.

She says infection rates continue to rise in the United States which still lags behind most G-7 nations in vaccination rates.

She indicates there is a mindset among some in the US population that natural immunity will occur as more people get infected, but she says that’s not the case with a virus like COVID that is still “very much on the move.”

She says the virus is continuing to mutate, and until it settles into its steady state, “the whole idea of just going for natural immunity without vaccination is going to be a very challenging way to limit this virus.”