Pfizer CEO Says 4th COVID-19 Vaccine Dose Will Be Needed

Those who’ve gotten their COVID-19 booster shots may need an additional boost sometime in the future, at least according to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. 

Bourla told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that a fourth vaccine dose may be needed when it comes to newer COVID variants—and that Pfizer will be submitting data regarding a fourth dose. 

“Many variants are coming, and Omicron was the first one that was able to evade – in a skillful way – the immune protection that we’re giving,” Bourla said. “The protection we are getting from the third (dose) it is good enough – actually quite good for hospitalizations and deaths.”

Bourla added that a fourth dose is “necessary” for right now, given that the three-dose protection is “not that good against infections” and “doesn’t last very long” against variants like Omicron.

Still, it remains unclear if that U.S. Food and Drug Administration will authorize another Pfizer dose, as Bourla added that it is “just submitting those data to the FDA, and then we’ll see what the experts also would say outside Pfizer.”

As CNN reports, some who are moderately or severely immunocompromised with three doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine can already get a fourth dose. But time will tell when and if it will be available to the wider public. 

Bourla added that the company is still looking to make a vaccine that can handle all variants longer-term. 

“We are working very diligently right now … 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,” Bourla said. “And if we be able to achieve that, then I think it is very easy to follow and remember so that we can go back to really the way used to live.”