- People will likely require booster shots within a year of getting vaccinated, Pfizer's CEO said.
- CEO Albert Bourla's comments $4, given earlier this month, were made public on Thursday.
- Many experts, including Bourla, believe
coronavirus vaccines will become a yearly routine.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said earlier this month that people will likely require booster shots within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated - as early as December for some.
"It is extremely important to suppress the pool of people that can be susceptible to the virus," Bourla $4 on April 1.
Booster shots will be an important tool in battling more contagious variants, he added. His comments were made public on Thursday.
Coronavirus infections $4, so vaccine manufacturers have been hard at work developing boosters to combat new variants or provide protection once immunity to existing shots wears out.
Updated $4 showed that people who received the company's vaccine still had immunity to the virus at least six months after getting their shots. Moderna's vaccine has also proved to be $4, but researchers still aren't sure exactly how long this immunity will last.
Many experts, including Bourla, suspect coronavirus vaccines will become a yearly routine, similar to flu shots.
Boosters will target a variant first identified in South Africa
Several nations are $4 later this year, but whether that scenario is inevitable or simply possible remains uncertain.
Of particular concern is how vaccines respond to B.1.351, a coronavirus variant first found in South Africa. $4 that shots from Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca are all $4 against the variant - but those studies looked at only immune protection from antibodies.
A $4 indicates that $4 - a type of white blood cell that plays a key role in our immune systems - can also recognize variants, including those that $4.
Both Pfizer and Moderna are developing and testing $4 to protect against B.1.351.
"I hope this summer to get the vaccine authorized for a boost so that we can help people getting boosted before the fall, so that we all have a normal fall and not a fall and winter like we just saw in the last six months," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel $4.
The UK's Sarah Gilbert, a University of Oxford vaccinologist who helped design the AstraZeneca vaccine, also $4$4$4 that a version of that vaccine aimed at tackling B.1.351 "looks very much like it will be available for the autumn."
Nadhim Zahawi, who is leading the UK's vaccine rollout, $4 that vaccinated people would likely need to return to clinics for another jab in late 2021.
Aylin Woodward contributed reporting.