The CEO of Moderna said the company’s new COVID-19 vaccine can prevent infection for years.
Speaking at a virtual event at Oddo BHF, a financial services group, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said it was now believed that the “nightmare scenario” that the vaccine would not work is now out the window . “We believe there will be potential protection for a couple of years,” Bancel said.
He explained that the “disintegration of antibodies generated by the vaccine in humans is going down very slowly,” Reuters reports.
However, there are still questions about elderly patients because, as is true with every virus, their immune system declines over time, Bancel said.
The CEO also said that Moderna is about to prove that its vaccine is effective against others coronavirus variants, Reports Reuters.
The US has done that shipments received from the photos of Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, which require two doses of several weeks apart. The second dose should be from the same company as the first. Both vaccines appeared safe and strongly protective in large yet unfinished studies.
In November, Moderna announced that the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine was 94.1% and that the effectiveness of the severe COVID-19 vaccine was 100%.
Pfizer announced that its vaccine is 95% effective against COVID-19 from 28 days of the first dose. He did not say how long the vaccine would last, but added that his vaccine trial will continue for another two years.
The CDC says that because reinfection is possible with COVID-19, even people who have already had the virus should get the vaccine. According to the CDC, it is still unclear how long the natural immunity or immunity someone will get from having an infection will last. Natural immunity varies from person to person, and some tests suggest that it may not last long for COVID-19.