COVID-19 defense: Pfizer CEO says a third vaccine dose will be needed in 12 months
DUBLIN: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says the new variant would require three doses of Pfizer vaccine to fully protect against the COVID-19 threat. He says a third booster vaccine dose will be needed in six to 12 months. Currently, the Pfizer vaccine is given in two different injections at intervals of three to four weeks.
The CEO said that the third dose should be taken at least six to twelve months before the annual revaccination after being completely vaccinated with the second dose. He told the US network CNBC that the new virus variants would be crucial in determining the final decision.
Additional vaccines to the EU
His revelation comes after the European Commission confirmed that it had reached an agreement with Pfizer to supply 1.8 billion doses of the vaccine between 2021 and 2023. Pfizer has moved vaccine delivery from the fourth to the second quarter under the new agreement. Thus, the European Union will receive an additional 50 million doses in this second quarter.
PHE report
The booster jabs and booster jabs for variants were discussed after the UK reported 77 cases related to the COVID-19 variant, which was first detected in India.
According to Public Health England (PHE), 73 cases of the B.1.617 variant have been reported in England and four cases in Scotland. The new variant has two “escape mutations”: E484Q and L452R, which is a matter of concern, said Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 cases are on the rise in India. More than 13.9 million cases and 172,000 deaths were confirmed. However, India is not currently on the UK’s travel ban red list.
WHO says COVID-19 is spreading at an alarming pace
World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that the number of coronavirus cases is rising at an alarming rate globally.
He notes that the number of new confirmed cases each week has nearly doubled in the last two months. He said the number of new cases “is approaching the highest rate of infection that we have seen so far in the pandemic”.
Adhanom said the outbreak has now risen sharply in some countries, such as Papua New Guinea, which had previously avoided widespread COVID-19 outbreaks.
“Until the beginning of this year, Papua New Guinea had reported less than 900 cases and nine deaths,” he said. But now there are 9,000 cases and 83 deaths. Half of this was reported in the last month.
To date, Covax has shipped about 40 million vaccines to almost 100 countries, which is enough to protect about 0.25% of the world’s population.
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