Covid-19: Pfizer says close to big step toward kids' vaccine

Washington - Pfizer CEO says the world will be back to normal life in one year with annual Covid revaccinations

Pfizer’s CEO said “it’s a question of days, not weeks” before the company and German partner BioNTech submit data to US regulators for federal authorisation of a Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11.

That would be an important step toward starting vaccinations for those youngsters, especially with kids returning to school and the delta variant resulting in a big jump in paediatric infections.

Pfizer said last week that its vaccine works for that age group and that it tested a much lower dose of the vaccine that’s already available for anyone 12 and older. The company said that after children aged 5 to 11 got their second dose during testing, they developed coronavirus-fighting antibody levels just as strong as teenagers and young adults getting the regular-strength shots.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Sunday that if the Food and Drug Administration approves the company’s application, “we will be ready with our manufacturing to provide this new formulation of the vaccine”.

And when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, he told ABC’s “This Week” that within a year, “I think we will be able to come back to normal life. I don’t think that this means that variants will not be continuing coming. And I don’t think that this means that we should be able to live our lives without having vaccinations, basically”.

Bourla also said “we will have vaccines that will last at least a year” and that “the most likely scenario, it is annual revaccinations”.

• Americas