Many of us never expected COVID to last more than a year and certainly don’t want it to last another year. Fortunately, the US already has two COVID vaccines that aim to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Moderna and Pfizer began distributing their vaccines in December, and more are likely to come, such as Johnson & Johnson’s one-time vaccine. While all of this may seem like good news, health officials are forthright about how they expect the pandemic’s future to turn out, and it may not be exactly what you want to hear. The CEO of Johnson & Johnson just made a rather disturbing prediction about COVID. Keep reading for his thoughts on where we’re going from here, and for more predictions about the future, Dr. Fauci just said, we’ll never be able to do this again.
Even though Johnson & Johnson has developed a single-dose vaccine, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily one injection and you’re done forever. During a Feb. 9 interview with CNBC, CEO of Johnson & Johnson Alex Gorsky indicated that the coronavirus behind COVID-19 may be something we will be dealing with after this year.
“I think most people think this is going to be where probably, yes, in the next few years we will get a COVID-19 shot, just like we would get a flu shot,” Gorsky said. “Exactly what that shot will consist of, I don’t think we know today. But I think we can all imagine a future where we live with this, but where we can keep science on par with the virus.” And For more information on the introduction of the vaccine, you can be vaccinated on any Walgreens by this date.
According to Gorsky, “a lot will depend on what happens to this virus,” especially in terms of how it evolves into new variants. As of now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified three new, more communicable variants that have made their way to the United States: a variant from the UK, a variant from South Africa, and a variant from Brazil.
‘You know unfortunately [COVID] spreads it can also mutate. And every time it mutates, it’s almost like a new click of a button, so to speak, where we can see a different variant, another mutation, that can affect its ability, say, Or to have a different kind of response, not just to a therapeutic agent, but also to a vaccine, “Gorsky explained. And for more information on returning to normalcy, this one COVID limitation can take years. last, experts say.
One strain in particular, the South African variant B.1.351, has already proven resistant to current COVID vaccines. According to The New York TimesSouth Africa just stopped using the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine in their country because researchers found that it did not prevent people from developing moderate infections. Other vaccines, such as Moderna’s, Pfizer’s, and Johnson & Johnson’s, still appear to be effective against this strain, but less so than previous variants – raising concerns about how future mutations may further evade these vaccines.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that we are stuck in this whack-a-mole reality, where we have variants that don’t respond to vaccines,” Andrea Taylor, PhD, the assistant director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center The New York Times. “We will try to adapt those vaccines to address new variants, but as the virus can still spread in some populations in some parts of the world, other variants will emerge.” And for more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter.
In terms of vaccine tweaking, both Moderna and Pfizer have already started work on possible booster shots to address emerging variants. Johnson & Johnson recently submitted data for their one-time vaccination to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use approval, which will be voted on Feb. 26. However, just as the future of the pandemic is uncertain, so is the future of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The manufacturer is currently testing a second dose of the vaccine.
Mathai Mammen, MD, global head of research and development at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, said during a Jan. 5 interview that the company was getting ready to test participants at a two-dose level, giving two doses of the vaccine two months apart. “The reason we’re conducting this second study is to see if a second dose could provide more or longer protection,” Mammen said.
As Gorsky went on to explain, after testing their one-off vaccine in hotspot variant locations such as Brazil and South Africa, Johnson & Johnson realized that emerging variants are something the manufacturer should prepare for in the coming years, which might call that second. dose in use. And for essential vaccine guidance, if this happens after your vaccination, the FDA says you should call 911.