Pfizer CEO says a THIRD Covid vaccine may be needed

Pfizer Inc's CEO says he believes people will 'likely' need a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

During a panel discussion hosted by CNBC in conjunction with CVS Health that aired on Thursday, Albert Bourla said a potential booster shot would be administered six to 12 months of being fully vaccinated.

Bourla added that he thinks it is possible that people will need to be immunized against coronavirus annually.

'There are vaccines that are like polio that one dose is enough...and there are vaccines like flu than you need every year,' he said.

'The Covid virus looks more like the influenza virus than the polio virus.'

Recently, updated from clinical trials showed that the Pfizer vaccine was more than 90 effective at preventing COVID-19 six months after the second dose.

However, more data is needed to determine if protection lasts beyond six months.

'It is extremely important to suppress the pool of people that can be susceptible to the virus,' Bourla said during the segment, which was taped April 1.

Earlier on Thursday, Dr David Kessler, the Biden administration's chief science officer of COVID response, said that Americans should expect to receive booster shots, especially as variant continue to spread.

'We are studying the durability of the antibody response,' he said during testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Response.

'It seems strong but there is some waning of that and no doubt the variants challenge...they make these vaccines work harder. So I think for planning purposes, planning purposes only, I think we should expect that we may have to boost.'

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech began studying a third dose of their vaccine in l... (Read more)

Latest News