Pfizer: Pandemic could last until 2023
Company investigating triple vaccine for children
Justin Wong (JW)October 5, 2026
Pfizer Inc. said Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic could spread until next year and announced plans to develop a three-dose vaccine regimen for children ages 2 to 16, which could delay the vaccine's approval .
The US pharmaceutical company spoke out at the time European countries were preparing for further travel and social restrictions and a study warned that the fast-spreading variant of the Omicron coronavirus is five times more likely to get infected again than its predecessor Delta.
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) officials said the company anticipates the disease will be endemic worldwide by 2024, meaning it will no longer be a pandemic. The company forecast that "COVID may become endemic by 2024".
Before the Omicron variant, leading US disease doctor Anthony Fauci predicted the end of the pandemic in the United States in 2022.
Announcing plans to develop a three-dose regimen for people ages 2 to 16, Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten said on a conference call that results from three doses in people over the age of 16 showed that this approach was greater Offer protection.
"So we decided to modify each of the pediatric studies to include a third dose in the series and apply for approval for a series of three doses instead of the two-dose series as originally intended," the company said.
Pfizer developed its COVID-19 vaccine together with German BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX). The companies have developed a version of their vaccine tailored to combat the Omicron variant, but have not yet decided whether it is needed. They expect to begin a clinical trial for the updated vaccine in January, Pfizer executives said.
The risk of re-infection with the Omicron variant is 5.4 times higher and there is no evidence that it is milder than the Delta variant, according to a study by Imperial College London, while cases are spreading across Europe Soaring high and threatening the end of the year festivities.
Previous infection may only offer 19% protection against re-infection with the new variant, according to Imperial College, which noted that the study, which included hundreds of thousands of cases, including 1,846 confirmed Omicron cases, has not been peer-reviewed was.
STEPS TO MORE RESTRICTIONS
The new evidence could make countries' efforts to speed up booster vaccinations to reduce the burden on hospitals and health systems even more urgent. So far, the surge in infections in the UK and other European countries has not resulted in a surge in hospital admissions or deaths.
Uncertainty about how Omicron's rapid expansion will affect global economic recovery was reflected in the mixed attitudes of major central banks this week.
The Bank of Japan maintained its ultra-loose monetary policy on Friday despite scaling back pandemic emergency funding.
Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and Denmark have all introduced further travel restrictions, following the example of France, which this week closed its borders to most of the immobile Brits.
Switzerland will extend the requirement to provide proof of vaccination or recovery from coronavirus to enter indoor spaces such as restaurants from Monday to January 24th, while a negative test result will be required in discos and bars.
Since the new variant is responsible for a fifth of the daily cases, the Danish government proposed to close theaters, cinemas, amusement parks and conference centers and to limit the public traffic in shops and stores only seven days before Christmas Eve.
"The rules of the game were changed again in record time," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters. "It is not a question of a complete shutdown of society, as we saw last winter. Our goal is still to keep society as open as possible."
In Denmark, almost 3,000 Omicron infections were registered in the 24 hours up to Thursday evening - double the previous day - while the daily total number of infections hit a new record. The Danish Parliament has yet to approve the proposed restrictions before they can be implemented.
Irish Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said that given the "cruel virus", his government had no choice but to consider unpopular measures, including early bar and restaurant closings.
According to the rules, which could be announced on Friday, travelers from Great Britain to Germany would have to stay in quarantine for two weeks, said a spokesman for the German Ministry of Health.
INCREASING NUMBERS OF DEATHS
Since the coronavirus hit Wuhan, China nearly two years ago, more than 5 million people have died of COVID-19 worldwide and more than 272 million cases have been reported.
More than 8.5 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered worldwide - an endeavor that the appearance of Omicron has made difficult.
The variant has driven infections in the UK close to the peak reached in early 2021, although the number of hospital admissions and deaths remains significantly lower. Infections also skyrocketed in December in European countries and the United States.
The governments of the European Union have agreed to order over 180 million doses of the modified version of the vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, according to the head of the EU executive body, the European Commission.
