Pfizer: Annual COVID shots preferable to frequent boosters
pharmafile | January 24, 2022 | News story | Sales and Marketing |
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has commented that an annual COVID-19 vaccine would be preferable to more frequent booster shots in fighting the pandemic.
The head of Pfizer has stated that booster shots administered every five months would “not be a good scenario,” and that he hopes instead for a vaccine administered “once a year”.
The global death toll for COVID-19 has reached over 5.5 million, with deaths in the US accounting for over 866,000 of these, according to data from John Hopkins University. With global cases of the virus soaring, some countries have expanded COVID-19 booster vaccine programmes, while others have shortened the gap between jabs.
The CDC has stated that a third dose of an mRNA vaccine is key to addressing Omicron, providing 90% protection against hospitalisation. The Centre has also announced a “pivot” in its language around vaccinations for COVID-19, so that all who are eligible will need to receive their booster vaccinations in order to be considered fully up to date with vaccinations.
Director Rochelle Walensky announced that the organisation is working to “pivot the language, to make sure that everybody is as up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines as they personally could be, should be, based on when they got their last vaccine.”
Walensky clarified that “if you recently got your second dose, you’re not eligible for a booster, you’re up to date. If you are eligible for a booster and you haven’t gotten it, you’re not up to date and you need to get your booster in order to be.”
Bourla also shared that Pfizer could be ready to file for approval for a redesigned vaccine targeting Omicron, mass producing it, as soon as March.
In Europe, the Omicron variant has moved the pandemic into a new juncture, WHO Europe director Hans Kluge, has said. “It’s plausible that the region is moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame,” Kluge told AFP, adding that Omicron could infect 60% of Europeans by March. The weekly COVID-related deaths in the UK were up 3% on Saturday to the previous week.
