Virologist: Vaccines safe and necessary; we'll defeat virus next year

Two vaccines are tested in Serbia, and Gligic says that when local experts check their harmlessness, and if results are good, they will be available to the population.

"The vaccines are made in a specific way, and we expect them to stop the pandemic, and then to produce those which will protect people for a longer time," Gligic said, adding that "a life-time protection vaccine should be produced.

However, she added, "that will take years for such vaccines to be in use."

Speaking about the novel virus, Gligic, unlike the epidemiologists, believed it changed in the new wave of the epidemic.

"The first wave ended in May when we removed all barriers. In the beginning, the virus acted as we estimated, and had weakened and disappeared. In July, the new virus, with higher infectious level and more difficult clinical state, appeared. It could be concluded that the virus somewhat changed and that we had a new epidemic within the epidemic with the new virus, but we don't have proves for that," Gligic said, adding it should wait for the researches.

She said the studies "are long-lasting, and if so, we made mistakes in July and started from the square one."

Gligic said she expected the number of infected would rise for the next several days, and then start falling.

"I hope we will defeat the virus next year. But, we urgently need harmless vaccines, tested on a carrier. They have to stop the epidemic. During that time, we have to move forward and produce a vaccine with life-long protection, Gligic told N1.