Many of us never expected COVID to last longer than a year and certainly do not want it to last another one. Fortunately, the US already has two COVID vaccines aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Moderna and Pfizer began distributing their vaccines in December, and more are likely to be on the way – such as Johnson & Johnson’s one-vaccine. While this all seems like good news, health officials are candid about how they expect the future of the pandemic to play out, and that may not be exactly what you want to hear. In fact, the CEO of Johnson & Johnson made a pretty disturbing prediction about COVID. Keep reading for his thoughts on where we are going from here, and for more predictions about the future, dr. Fauci just said we would never be able to do that again.
Although Johnson & Johnson created a vaccine vaccine, that does not mean that it is necessarily one shot and then you are done forever. Johnson & Johnson CEO during interview with CNBC on February 9 Alex Gorsky indicated that the coronavirus behind COVID-19 is something we are dealing with beyond this year.
“I think most people feel like it’s likely to be, well, the next few years we’ll get a COVID-19 shot just like a flu shot,” Gorsky said. “Exactly what that shot is going to consist of, I do not know we know today. But I think we can all imagine a future where we live with this, but where we can keep science up to date with the virus.” And for more information on vaccination vaccines, you can be vaccinated at any walgreens by any date.
According to Gorsky, ‘a lot of it will depend on what happens to this virus’, especially in terms of how it develops into new variants. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified three new, more transmissible variants that have made their way to the United States: a variant from the United Kingdom, a variant from South Africa and a variant from Brazil.
‘You unfortunately know like [COVID] spread can also change it. And every time it mutates, it is almost like another click on the rotary knob, where we can see a different variant, a different mutation, which can have an effect on the ability to repel antibodies, for example. or to have a different kind of response, not only to a therapeutic, but also to a vaccine, “Gorsky explained. And for more information on returning to normalcy, this one COVID restriction could take years, says experts.
One strain in particular, the South African variant B.1.351, has already shown resistance to current COVID vaccinations. According to The New York Times, South Africa has only stopped using the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine in their country because researchers have determined that it does 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 with previous variants – which raises concerns about how future mutations may elicit these vaccines even more.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that we’re going to be trapped in this slap-a-mole reality, where we have variants that do not respond to vaccines,” Andrea Taylor, PhD, the assistant director at Duke Global Health Innovation Center, tells The New York Times. “We will try to adapt the vaccines to target new variants, but because the virus will still be able to spread in some populations in some parts of the world, other variants will emerge.” And sign up for our daily newsletter for more information.
In terms of vaccine adaptation, both Moderna and Pfizer have already begun work on potential booster shots to deal with emerging variants. Johnson & Johnson recently submitted data for their single-dose vaccine to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for authorization for emergency use, which will be voted on February 26th. Just as the future of the pandemic is uncertain, so is the future of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine. The manufacturer is currently testing a second dose of the vaccine.
Mathai Mammen, Managing Director, Global Head of Research and Development at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, said during a Jan. 5 interview that the company is ready to test participants at a two-dose level, giving two doses of the vaccine that are two months apart. “The reason we are conducting this second study is to see if a second dose can provide greater or longer protection,” Mammen said.
As Gorsky further explained, Johnson and Johnson realized that emerging variants were something the manufacturer had to prepare for over the next few years, after testing their single-dose vaccine on hotspot variants such as Brazil and South Africa. dose in use. And for essential vaccination guidance: if it happens after your vaccination, the FDA says you should call 911.