Two years into the Pandemic, pharmaceutical executives are divided over whether additional COVID-19 shots are necessary for everyone.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday that a fourth dose, or second booster shot, was necessary since a third dose doesn't protect well against infections. There is still strong protection against hospitalization and death from the COVID-19 vaccines.
The president of Moderna told Insider on Monday that people can be more careful about who they give money to.
For those who are immune-compromised, we want to strongly recommend and encourage a fourth shot, the same way we do with flu vaccines.
He pointed out that vaccines can be less effective in people with cancer.
Covid can be a life threatening disease for people who have cancer. I don't think you want to mess with that.
The rest of the public can decide if they want to go for a fourth dose.
Is it necessary? I think that is a strong word. I think it will benefit anyone who gets it.
Whether or not public health continues to recommend it for everyone is more complicated because not everyone wants to get the first couple ones.
The need for fourth dose might depend on age or underlying health conditions according to Dr. Anthony Fauci at a White House press briefing last month.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that any recommendations that would be across the board for everyone would not be heard.
He plans to get an annual booster to protect against the long-term effects of COVID-19. Many COVID-19 patients report symptoms that can last several months or more, such as fatigue, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, headaches, muscle pain, or changes in taste or smell.
I personally will get a booster every year because I don't want to ever lose my sense of smell.
He thinks COVID-19 is endemic and seasonal. In the fall, he expects cases to rise as kids go back to school.
In December, it will look a little bit gnarly, like the flu, and then it will go back down. He said that the seasonal picture is for the endemic human coronaviruses.
The wild card is if another variant like Omicron poses a greater challenge to our current vaccines. He expects to see more strains that make the virus more transmissible, more capable of causing severe disease, or more resistant to vaccines and treatments in the future. He is hopeful that the ones we have now will not be more dangerous.
I think it will be related to Omicron or Delta, he said.
He said that Omicron would be a bad strategy for the virus to stop evolving.
Pfizer and Moderna are studying boosters that target Omicron. Moderna is looking at a vaccine that will target both Omicron and the original version of the virus.
Moderna is seeing better performance with a bivalent vaccine.
If you get the bivalent booster in the fall, you will get at least six months of good protection, he said.
Since only one coronaviruses strain tends to dominate at a time, some vaccine experts are skeptical of whether bivalent vaccines are the most effective. The goal is to create the broadest immunity against all the circulating strains.
Moderna Chief Medical Officer Dr. Paul Burton told NBC News that the vaccine could enter human trials in the coming weeks.
There is a chance of a booster or another dose of the original vaccine being rolled out. Moderna is hopeful that a bivalent booster will be available this year.
We have six months to get it out, so we should be able to do it.
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