President Joe Biden listens to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla speak at the Pfizer Kalamazoo Manufacturing Site on February 19, 2021 in Portage, Michigan.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty images
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said people “likely” will need a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine within 12 months of being fully vaccinated. His comments were made public on Thursday, but were recorded on April 1.
He also said people may need to be vaccinated against the virus every year.
“It’s extremely important to suppress the pool of people susceptible to the virus,” he told CNBC’s Bertha Coombs at an event with CFS Health. He added that the vaccines will be an important tool in the fight against highly contagious variants.
Pfizer said earlier this month that its Covid-19 vaccine was more than 91% effective at protecting against Covid and more than 95% effective against serious illness for up to six months after the second dose. Moderna’s vaccine, which uses technology similar to Pfizer’s, was also found to be very effective six months after the second dose.
Pfizer’s data was based on more than 12,000 vaccinated participants. However, researchers say more data is still needed to determine if protection lasts beyond six months.
Earlier Thursday, David Kessler, chief science officer of the Biden government’s Covid response, said Americans should expect to receive booster shots to protect against coronavirus variants.
Kessler told US lawmakers that currently approved vaccines are highly protective, but noted that new variants could “challenge” the effectiveness of the injections.
“We don’t know everything at this point,” he told House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Response.
“We are studying the durability of the antibody response,” he said. “It seems strong, but that’s declining a bit and the variants are undoubtedly a challenge … they make these vaccines work harder. So I think for planning purposes, just planning purposes, we should expect that we might need a boost. to give. “
In February, Pfizer and BioNTech said they were testing a third dose of their Covid-19 vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants of the virus.
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