COVID-19: "We are going to live with this virus... forever," says Moderna's CEO.

  

CEO of Moderna Inc., Stephane Bancel

"We are going to live with this virus, we think, forever." 

Those are the words of Mr. Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna Inc. Moderna Inc., a vaccine company, is one of the forerunners in the fight against Covid-19. On Monday, Jan. 4, the company pledged that it would increase the minimum number of doses of its vaccine to 600 million. 

Mr. Bancel was speaking during a panel discussion at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, on Wednesday, January 13, 2021. His warning came earlier this year as public health officials and infectious disease experts indicated that there is a high likelihood that this novel coronavirus will become an endemic disease, meaning it will become present in communities at all times, though likely at lower levels and weaker potency than it is now. 

In the panel discussion, the Moderna CEO agreed, asserting: "SARS-CoV-2 is not going away."

Already, the novel coronavirus has new variants that have become identifiable by the region or country from which they originated. Late last year both the UK and South African variants emerged. Then early this year, scientists in Japan identified a new variant, and on January 13, 2021, scientists in Ohio announced they discovered two (2) new variants originating in the United States. One of the strains quickly became the dominant strain in Columbus, Ohio, over a three-week period from late December 2020 to early January 2021. Like the strain first detected in the U.K., scientists had said the U.S. mutations appear to make Covid-19 more contagious. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently reviewing the research on these two strains.

Back in March, Brazil researchers announced they discovered a new strain, which happened to be the new variant scientists in Japan had first detected in January. 

A couple months ago, a double mutant variant emerged, which is now the more dominant strain in India and the cause of the recent, more deadlier wave of infections in that country.  At the time of the writing of this article this new mutant strain has been found in 53 other countries besides India. [1]

Pfizer researchers had said its vaccine developed with BioNTech appeared to be effective against a key mutation in the U.K. strain as well as the variant found in South Africa. I have already shown in previous articles (see labels: Israeli's Covid-19 vaccine study; 'break through' cases) that while Pfizer's vaccine test results are promising for the UK strain, not so much against the South African variant. Scientists from Israel published findings (April 2021) which contradict Pfizer's own study.

Moderna's vaccine was authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration on December 18, 2020.  It was authorized for emergency use for Americans who are 18 years and older. Additional studies still need to be completed in children, whose immune systems can respond differently to vaccines than those of adults, though recently Pfizer received approval to inoculate children ages 12 to 15 years old.

According to the FDA, it "determined that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine has met the statutory criteria for issuance of an EUA. The totality of the available data provides clear evidence that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine may be effective in preventing COVID-19". [2]

So far 289 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines (Moderna, Pfizer and others) have been administered across the United States. [3]

There are already four coronaviruses that are endemic across the world, but they aren't as contagious or deadly as Covid-19, according to the World Health Organization.

References:

1. Aljazeera. 'COVID strain first detected in India found in 53 territories: WHO'. Aljazeera website. Published May 26, 2021. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/26/covid-strain-first-detected-in-india-found-in-53-territories-who
2. US Food & Drug Administration. FDA Takes Additional Action in Fight Against COVID-19 By Issuing Emergency Use Authorization for Second COVID-19 Vaccine. FDA News Release. Dated 18 December 2020. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-takes-additional-action-fight-against-covid-19-issuing-emergency-use-authorization-second-covid
3. Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker. 'More than 1.7 billion shots given'. Bloomberg.Updated 26 May 2021. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/