New coronavirus variants could emerge soon, shifting the pandemic’s state of play once again.
Driving the news: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” over the weekend that there will be more coronavirus variants soon, which might be reason enough to receive another COVID-19 booster shot.
- Bourla said the current vaccines aren’t effective enough for the long term, so new vaccines will need to be made to tackle future variants.
What they’re saying: “Variants are coming and omicron was the first one ... but also we know that the duration of the protection doesn’t last very long,” he said.
- “So what we are trying to do, and we’re working very diligently right now, it is to make not only a vaccine that will protect against all variants, including omicron, but also something that can protect for at least a year.”
The bigger picture: Experts are monitoring potential coronavirus variants to stay ahead of any future COVID-19 outbreak.
- CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a segment on “60 Minutes” that the CDC is constantly looking for new variants.
- “We want to be able to detect 0.1% of any new variant that comes into this country with 99% certainty,” Walensky said.
Most recently, the World Health Organization confirmed a new COVID-19 variant called “deltacron,” which appears to be a mixture of the delta variant and the omicron variant, as I reported for the Deseret News.
- However, “deltacron” has not been spreading too far yet, which has been a signal to experts that the variant isn’t one of major concern.