Pfizer CEO predicts ‘normal life’ within a year

Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla said on Sunday he anticipates a return to normal life post-pandemic within the year.

“I agree that, within a year, I think will we able to come back to normal life,” Bourla said on ABC’s “This Week.” 

Bourla added that he does not think that this means variants will no longer exist or that vaccines would be unnecessary. 

Bourla said that the “most likely scenario” was that the world would continue to see new variants and have vaccines that would last “at least a year.”

“I think the most likely scenario is annual revaccination, but we don’t know really. We need to wait and see the data,” Bourla said.

Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel echoed a similar sentiment to the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung last week saying “enough doses should be available by the middle of next year so that everyone on this earth can be vaccinated.”

These remarks from leaders of the drug companies follow the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to move forward with recommending third-dose COVID-19 booster shots of Pfizer’s vaccine for people 65 and older as well as people with compromised immune systems.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said last week that boosters would also be available to people in high-risk work environments such as healthcare workers.

Walensky also reiterated the notion of annual booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine was uncertain.