The CEO of Moderna said that a second booster shot will likely be needed to effectively fight against COVID-19.
“I will be surprised when we get that data in the coming weeks that it’s holding nicely over time,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said on Thursday. “I would expect that it’s not going to hold great.”
“I still believe we’re going to need boosters in the fall of ‘22 and forward,” he added during a healthcare CEO conference organized by Goldman Sachs, per BizPacReview.
He also warned that boosters would likely be needed regularly for the elderly and those with underlying conditions.
“We have been saying that we believe first this virus is not going away,” he said. “We’re going to have to live with it.”
He cited governments, including the United Kingdom and South Korea, that have already prepared for a fourth booster by ordering doses.
Bancel said that an endemic stage could soon be reached as the omicron variant makes its way around and more people develop immune protection. However, he urged caution when it comes to making too many predictions, as variants develop quickly.
“What is totally impossible to predict, is there a new mutation coming in a day, a week, three months that is worse in terms of severity of disease,” he said. “That’s a piece that we’ll have to just be cautious about.”
