Pfizer CEO says fourth Covid-19 vaccine will be needed

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says a fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine will be needed to protect people from the virus.

Most people will need to get a fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose to be protected from the virus, the head of Pfizer said on Sunday.

“It is necessary for most” people, CEO Albert Bourla said during an interview on CBS’s Face The Nation when asked if Americans can expect to get annual Covid booster shots every fall.

The New York Post reports the regimen of two initial doses plus a booster is not able to protect against variants and wanes too quickly in strength, Bourla conceded — making additional shots inevitable.

“Right now, the protection that you’re getting from the third [shot], it is good enough — actually quite good for hospitalisation and deaths — it’s not that good against infections, but doesn’t last very long,” he said.

Pfizer and other companies are working on shots that will protect against any future variants.

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A fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will be necessary for most people, according to the CEO of Pfizer. Picture: Denis Charlet / AFP.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in an interview that the current two initial doses and booster shot wanes too quickly in strength. Picture: Steven Ferdman/Getty Images.

“Omicron was the first [variant] that was able to evade, in a skilful way the immune protection that we’re given, but also in all that the duration of the protection doesn’t last very long,” Bourla told host Margaret Brennan.

“What we are trying to do and we are working very diligently right now it is to make not only a vaccine that will protect against all variants, including Omicron, but also something that can protect for at least a year.
“And if we be able to achieve that, then I think it is very easy to follow and remember so that we can go back to really the way used to live.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission.