Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel warned on Wednesday that the coronavirus “is not going away” and the world will have to live with it “forever”.
“We believe we will live with this virus forever,” Bancel said.
Bancel made that observation while speaking at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, CNBC reports. He said health officials should always be looking for new variants of COVID-19 so that new vaccines can be produced and that “SARS-CoV-2 will not go away.”
Several new variants have been detected, and one in the UK is significantly more infectious. The World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday that a new separate variant had also been detected in Japan.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said of the new variants: “The more the virus spreads, the greater the likelihood of new changes to the virus. Most notably, the transmissibility of some variants of the virus appears to be increasing. “.
The Moderna dose vaccine was shown in vaccine trials to offer about 95% immunity to coronavirus. Moderna officials told the JPMorgan Health Conference on Tuesday that the vaccine is expected to provide immunity for at least a year.
Tal Zaks, Moderna’s chief medical officer, said the biotech company would study whether a third booster shot would extend the vaccine’s immunity.
“We believe there is an opportunity to increase, especially those at high risk, in case you need it,” Zaks said.
As CNBC points out, the WHO currently claims that there are four endemic coronaviruses worldwide, but none are as contagious as SARS-CoV-2.