Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel warned on Wednesday that the coronavirus “does not disappear” and that the world must live with it “forever”.
“We are going to live with this virus forever,” Bancel said.
Bancel made the remark when he spoke at the JPMorgan Healthcare conference, CNBC reported. He said that health officials should always be on the lookout for new variants of COVID-19 in order to produce new vaccines and that “SARS-CoV-2 is not going away.”
Several new variants have been detected, one of which is significantly more contagious from the UK. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that a new, separate variant had also been detected in Japan.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus commented on the new variants: “The more the virus spreads, the greater the chance of new changes to the virus. The most important thing is that the transmissibility of some variants of the virus increase. “
Modern two-dose vaccine has been shown in vaccine trials to provide approximately 95 percent immunity to the coronavirus. Moderna officials said at the JPMorgan Healthcare conference on Tuesday that the vaccine is expected to provide immunity for at least one year.
Tal Zaks, chief medical officer of Moderna, said the biotechnology company would investigate whether a third enhancer would prolong the immunity provided by the vaccine.
“We think there is a chance to give a boost, especially to those at high risk, should you need it,” Zaks said.
As CNBC notes, the WHO currently reports that there are four coronaviruses worldwide endemic, but none are as contagious as SARS-CoV-2.