With the emergence of new variants of COVID-19, there is concern from some that new mutations of the virus will keep popping up, making it harder for vaccines to protect against it.

Dr. Proton Rahmen, whose team develops modelling related to COVID in the province, says it’s always possible that things could get worse should new variants emerge.

He notes that in areas of the world that are largely unvaccinated, it is possible that once COVID gets into those communities, new variants will emerge that are more lethal. However, he says the hope is that the vaccines will create what he calls a “cross-immunity,” meaning that they will still protect against some aspects of virus variants.

The hope, he says, is that immunity will be enough to protect against serious illness from those mutations.