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The CEO of Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday that people may need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 every year for the next several years – like the seasonal flu shot.
“Unfortunately, as (the virus) spreads, it can also mutate,” Alex Gorsky said in an interview on CNBC.
“Every time it mutates it’s almost like another click of the dial so to speak where we can see another variant, another mutation that may impact its ability to repel antibodies or have some type of different response not only to a therapy but also to a vaccine, ”he added.
Public health officials have already warned that the coronavirus is likely to stay here.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist, said COVID-19 could become ‘endemic’, meaning it will be a constant part of communities.
“I doubt we’re going to eradicate this,” Fauci said at a virtual health conference last week. “I think we have to anticipate that this is something that we might need to stay in control chronically.
Gorsky’s comments, meanwhile, came after Johnson & Johnson last week asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to clear its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.
The drugmaker claims its injection is 66% effective in preventing moderate to severe illness.
The J&J vaccine would add a third vital option – along with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – as the United States struggles to distribute vaccines against the virus.
However, the J&J version was found to be less effective against a more aggressive strain of the virus found in South Africa, according to the report.
This strain, along with a variant identified in the United Kingdom, has been detected in the United States.
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