WASHINGTON (TND) — The efficacy of booster vaccines against COVID-19 is likely to decline over time and a fourth shot may be something people need to protect against the virus, according to Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel.
Bancel reportedly said as much while answering questions during a health care CEO conference hosted by Goldman Sachs Thursday.
CNBC reports Bancel told the conference he thinks people who received their booster shots in the fall will be adequately protected through the winter, but come next fall, the strength of those boosters will wane.
“I will be surprised when we get that data in the coming weeks that [the booster shot's efficacy is] holding nicely over time — I would expect that it’s not going to hold great,” Bancel says, according to The Washington Post.
According to Moderna, Bancel has been its CEO since 2011. The company says he attained a master's in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota and also has a Master of Engineering degree from École Centrale Paris and an M.B.A. from Harvard.
Bancel says his company is working on a vaccine that is tailored to combating the omicron variant of COVID-19, according to reporting from Reuters.
I still believe we're going to need boosters in the fall of '22 and forward," Reuters reports the Moderna CEO saying during the healthcare CEO conference.
There is reported evidence of booster shots proving to be effective. The Washington Post reports the Israeli government released findings of a preliminary study that indicate a fourth dose of the vaccine generates a "fivefold" increase in antibodies in just one week following the shot.
This effectiveness could soon prove to be vital, as the omicron variant of COVID-19 has helped a recent exponential increase in cases according to data from Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, with the seven-day moving average of daily cases skyrocketing in America to well over 840,000.
Bancel reportedly says those who have underlying health conditions, along with those who are older, may need annual boosters against COVID-19.
“We have been saying that we believe first this virus is not going away,” CNBC reports Bancel saying. “We’re going to have to live with it.”