Moderna’s CEO said the company’s new COVID-19 vaccine could prevent infection for years.
Speaking at a virtual event by Oddo BHF, a financial services group, Moderna’s CEO, Stephane Bancel, said that the once considered “nightmare scenario” that the vaccine would not work has now been thrown out the window. “We believe there will be protection potentially for a few years,” said Bancel.
He explained that “the deterioration of antibodies generated by the vaccine in humans decreases very slowly,” reports Reuters.
However, there are still doubts about elderly patients because, as with all viruses, their immune system goes down over time, Bancel said.
The CEO also said that Moderna is close to proving that its vaccine is effective against others coronavirus variants, Reuters reports.
The USA has remittances received from both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech injections, which require two doses several weeks apart. The second dose must be from the same company as the first. Both vaccines appeared safe and strongly protective in large studies not yet completed.
In November, Moderna announced that the effectiveness of the vaccine against COVID-19 was 94.1% and that the effectiveness of the severe vaccine against COVID-19 was 100%.
Pfizer announced that its vaccine is 95 percent effective against COVID-19 starting 28 days after the first dose. It was not informed how long the vaccine would last, but added that the vaccine test will continue for another two years.
The CDC states that, since reinfection is possible with COVID-19, even people who have already had the virus should receive the vaccine. It is not yet clear how long the natural immunity, or the immunity that someone gains from having an infection, will last, according to the CDC. Natural immunity varies from person to person, and some evidence suggests that it may not last long for COVID-19.