At present, most Americans are still awaiting their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Additional research has shown that both Moderna and Pfizer approved vaccines – and one of Johnson & Johnson awaiting approval – are very effective in protecting the disease. But getting a COVID vaccine this year, according to Pfizer CEO, may not provide the kind of protection that keeps you safe forever. Albert Bourla. He recently told NBC News that the shots may have to become a regular occurrence. Read on to see what the executive has to say about the future vaccination schedule, and for more information on what other vaccinations are already doing for you, you can check out this other vaccine that may already protect you against COVID, says study.
In an interview with NBC News Lester Holt, Bourla discussed the ongoing trials for a potential third dose of the Pfizer vaccine to make it more effective against mutated versions of the virus, including the highly transmissible South African variant. He pointed out that such mutations are the nature of viruses and that this is why annual shots are needed.
“Every year you have to get your flu vaccine,” Bourla said. “It’s going to be the same with COVID. In a year, you should get your annual chance to protect COVID.” And for more news on vaccines, the CDC is going to say: Do not do this within two weeks of your COVID vaccine.
More experts point out that the actual duration between shots must be determined. “You have to cast a wide net to find Goldilocks,” John Grabenstein, PhD, a former executive director of medical matters for vaccines at Merck and a former immunologist at the Department of Defense, told NBC News. “You want to look at shorter intervals, you want to look at longer intervals to determine when it’s the best time to vaccinate again, if necessary.”
Currently, the Pfizer booster shot trials are testing patients whose first dose was six months to a year ago. And for more information on new guidelines for the first time you’ve had a go, check out The CDC says you no longer need to do this once you’ve been vaccinated.
But Bourla does not say that SARS-CoV-2 will become an annual enemy. In January, CNBC reported that Moderna CEO said during a panel discussion during the JPMorgan Healthcare conference Stéphane Bancel predicts what he believes would be the future of COVID.
“SARS-CoV-2 will not go away,” Bancel said, meaning the virus would become ‘endemic’ and spread permanently at low levels while rarely causing serious illness. “We are going to live with this virus forever.” And subscribe to our daily newsletter for more COVID news sent directly to your inbox.
To help predict the trajectory of COVID, a study was published in Science in January created a model that found that “once the endemic phase is reached and the primary exposure is in childhood, CoV-2 may be no more virulent than colds.” Future interactions with the virus will for the most part not be close to the serious threat it now poses. Researchers are confident that it will eventually be mostly harmless, and will prevent an emerging strain that causes serious illness in children.
COVID-19 is currently causing so much havoc because very few people have immunity to the foreign pathogen, but it is likely to switch to an endemic disease if most people are vaccinated or exposed to the virus. And experts say for more information on the future of the virus. This is when the COVID pandemic is completely over.