Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla made this comment on Sunday as he was interviewed regarding how his company's COVID-19 vaccine has been approved as a booster for the elderly and other communities supposedly at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus.
"Within a year, I think we will be able to come back to normal life," said Bourla on Sunday during an appearance on mainstream media outlet ABC's program, "This Week."
Bourla's prediction is in line with the same one made by Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel on Thursday. He said this return to normalcy will be facilitated by the ability of big pharma companies like Moderna and Pfizer to produce even more COVID-19 vaccines.
"If you look at the industry-wide expansion of production capacities over the past six months, enough doses should be available by the middle of next year so that everyone on this earth can be vaccinated," said Bancel.
Pfizer CEO believes variants will still appear and his company's boosters will still be necessary
Both Bourla and Bancel believe COVID-19 boosters will be necessary for the return to normalcy.
"I don't think that [returning to normal] means that the variants will not continue coming, and I don't think that this means that we should be able to live our lives without having vaccinations," said Bourla.
The Pfizer CEO even suggested that it might be necessary for people to receive coronavirus vaccine booster doses annually to maintain a normal life. (Related: The scam never ends: Pfizer CEO predicts emergence of vaccine-resistant strain – and a new booster shot to "treat" it.)
"The most likely scenario for me is that, because the virus is spread all over the world, that it will continue seeing new variants that are coming out," he said. "Also we will have vaccines that they will last at least a year, and I think the most likely scenario is annual vaccination, but we don't know really, we need to wait and see the data."
Out of the three widely available COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S., only Pfizer's has been approved as a booster for fully vaccinated individuals. On Friday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky authorized the distribution of Pfizer COVID-19 booster vaccines for people in high-risk settings.
Elderly Americans and adults in high-risk institutional and occupational settings who were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine will be eligible for booster doses at least six months after their last shot.
Bancel expects the U.S. and other countries to approve more COVID-19 boosters for fully vaccinated people. This is supposedly because people who are at risk of COVID-19 and were vaccinated early "undoubtedly" need a refresher.
Moderna's booster only contains half the dose of the original vaccine, which means more of them will be available once regulatory authorities approve it for distribution.
"The volume of vaccine is the biggest limiting factor," said Bancel. "With half the dose, we would have three billion doses available worldwide for the coming year instead of just two billion."
The composition of Moderna's boosters will remain the same as the original. But the company is already working to create an altered COVID-19 vaccine that will supposedly be more efficient against coronavirus variants.
"We are currently testing delta-optimized variants in clinical trials," said Bancel. "They will form the basis for the booster vaccination for 2022. We are also trying out delta plus beta, the next mutation that scientists believe is likely."
Learn more about how big pharma companies like Pfizer and Moderna are pushing people to take more COVID-19 vaccines at Vaccines.news.
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