Moderna: "No Complete End to COVID-19... Annual Vaccination Needed Like Flu"

"Booster Shot Effect Lasts 6 Months... Need Another Dose by Year-End"

Moderna (left) and Pfizer vaccines. / Photo by AP Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] U.S. vaccine pharmaceutical company Moderna has claimed that vaccines should be administered annually like the flu to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Paul Burton, Moderna's Chief Medical Officer (CMO), said in an online video interview with Yonhap News on the 18th, "Ultimately, we will live with COVID-19," adding, "The COVID-19 situation will enter an endemic phase, but vaccines will need to be administered annually like the flu."

He continued, "The effectiveness of the current booster shots will begin to decline after about six months," and predicted, "From the upcoming winter, that is, from the end of 2022 to early 2023, the whole world will need to receive booster shots once again."

When asked if there is no end to the COVID-19 pandemic, Paul Burton said, "We discovered the Omicron variant last November, but recently, the BA.2 lineage, called 'Stealth Omicron,' is spreading again," adding, "COVID-19 is a virus that evolves so rapidly that no one can predict it. This spring, the number of confirmed cases will decrease somewhat, leading to a kind of stabilization period, but I believe it will eventually return without complete eradication."

Regarding the question of whether the need to prevent it like the flu means moving toward endemicity, he replied, "The endemic stage of COVID-19 means the disease exists, but most people can live with it by being vaccinated. We will slowly, eventually enter the COVID-19 endemic phase and live with it."

Currently, Moderna administers 50mg for the COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, which is half the dose of the first and second shots (each 100mg). While administering the existing vaccine at a low dose for the third shot can significantly reduce severe cases such as hospitalization and death, they believe that developing a more optimized and 'better' vaccine is necessary to further reduce infection rates.

Accordingly, Moderna is developing an Omicron-specific vaccine to respond to the globally prevalent Omicron variant and a vaccine that can simultaneously respond to both Omicron and Delta variants. Clinical data for both are expected to be released in the first half of this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.