The head of the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer said on Tuesday that the company is working on shots to help protect the vaccine against coronavirus variants, as mutated strains of the virus are still spreading worldwide.
The American biotechnology company Moderna said on Monday that it would test the addition of the vaccine with three shots to defend it against a South African variant.
‘Every time a new variant appears, we need to be able to test whether or not it is [our vaccine] effective, ”Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told Bloomberg News. “Once we discover something that is not as effective, we will be able to produce a booster dose very, very quickly that will be a small variation in the current vaccine.”
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Bourla said the coronavirus would probably not be completely eliminated, but through pharmaceuticals would reduce to a disease like the common flu, and that people would get a chance to defend against new strains every year.
Pfizer developed its vaccine at German biotechnology company BioNTech.
Moderna said the vaccine would remain protective against the variants first identified in the UK and South Africa, although the shot appears to be less effective against the South African strain.
Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, blamed British tensions for Israel’s third wave of outbreaks, which raged unabated despite the successful vaccine campaign and a nationwide one-week lockout.
Netanyahu issued a warning on Wednesday about virus mutations while speaking to the World Economic Forum via video conference.
While emphasizing that he is not an expert on vaccines, the prime minister said he believes “it is only a matter of time until we get a strain to which the current vaccines are not susceptible.”
Netanyahu said that due to mutations, “we have to vaccinate at least annually, that’s my guess.”
Medical staff in the coronavirus ward of Ziv Medical Center in the northern city of Safed, 27 January 2021. (David Cohen / Flash90)
The British scientific chief adviser said last week that the British variant was likely to carry a higher risk of death than the original strain and that the virus ‘would probably last forever’.
Israel mainly uses the Pfizer vaccine and has also sent to Moderna’s lap. Israel has administered a first dose of vaccine to more than 2.8 million of its 9.3 million citizens in its vaccination campaign, leading the world by far in per capita vaccinations.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health extended the vaccination campaign to anyone over 35 years of age.
In an apparent world, the Ministry of Health on Tuesday issued a directive in favor of vaccinating children under the age of 16 who are at high risk of developing severe symptoms if they contract COVID-19. The decision is still awaiting final approval.
The mortality rate, test positivity, number of infections and the number of serious cases have remained alarmingly high in Israel for weeks. More than 25 percent of the 4,605 Israelis who died from COVID-19 died of the disease alone in the past month.
In addition to the widespread British variant, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday that it had so far found a total of 30 cases of the South African mutation in Israel.
Israel on Wednesday extended its closure of Ben Gurion International Airport and closes most of its land borders with Jordan and Egypt to keep out virus variants. The cabinet could extend the nationwide exclusion, the third of Israel, which expires on Sunday. The expansion will be decided at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Netanyahu said.
The government’s response to the third wave of the outbreak is hampered by coalition battles over the application of restrictions in ultra-Orthodox areas.
Some ultra-orthodox groups ignored the lock-in rules and responded to violent riots on police enforcement. Netanyahu’s Likud party largely sided with its ultra-Orthodox political allies against the strict enforcement of the rules, while its partner in the outgoing coalition, the Blue and White Party, campaigned for stricter enforcement.