The CEO of Moderna said that the company’s new COVID-19 vaccine can prevent infection for years.
Speaking at a virtual Oddo BHF event, a financial services group, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the “nightmare scenario” once thought the vaccine would not work is now out the window. “We believe there will be potential protection for a few years,” Bancel said.
He explained that “the breakdown of antibodies generated by the vaccine in humans is declining very slowly,” Reuters reports.
However, there are still questions about elderly patients because, as is true of every virus, their immune system declines over time, Bancel said.
The CEO also said that Moderna is close to proving that its vaccine is effective against others variants of coronavirus, Reuters reports.
The US did it received shipments both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech photos, which require both doses a few weeks apart. The second dose should be from the same company as the first. Both vaccines have appeared safely and strongly protected in large, as 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 has announced that its vaccine is 95% effective against COVID-19 starting 28 days after the first dose. He did not mention how long the vaccine would last, but added that its study would 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 receive the vaccine. It is unclear how long the natural immunity or immunity someone will gain from 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.