Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer predicted Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic may not end until 2024, Reuters reports. Also on Friday, the company and its partner BioNTech SE announced plans to delay request for authorization of their COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 2 to 5 "after the shot generated a weaker than expected immune response in a key study," writes The Wall Street Journal.
In a presentation to investors, Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten explained the company "expects some regions to continue to see pandemic levels of COVID-19 cases over the next year or two," per Reuters. Meanwhile, he said, other countries might simultaneously experience COVID on more of an "endemic" level, with "low, manageable caseloads."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Colum McCann's 6 favorite books that take place at seaFeature The National Book Award-winning author recommends works by Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville, and more
-
Jewish communities are wary of Donald Trump’s push to punish antisemitismIN THE SPOTLIGHT While the White House expands its effort to criminalize actions it deems harmful to Jewish Americans, not everyone in those same communities are on board with the president's purported assistance.
-
Book Review: 'Yoko: A Biography' and 'Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax of the Century, Its Enduring Impact, and What It Reveals About America Today'Feature The woman who shaped the Beatles and how the hoax of 'Report From Iron Mountain' fueled conspiracy theories
-
RFK Jr. visits Texas as 2nd child dies from measlesSpeed Read An outbreak of the vaccine-preventable disease continues to grow following a decade of no recorded US measles deaths
-
Shingles vaccine cuts dementia risk, study findsSpeed Read Getting vaccinated appears to significantly reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia
-
Measles outbreak spreads, as does RFK Jr.'s influenceSpeed Read The outbreak centered in Texas has grown to at least three states and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is promoting unproven treatments
-
Five years on: How Covid changed everythingFeature We seem to have collectively forgotten Covid’s horrors, but they have completely reshaped politics
-
RFK Jr. offers alternative remedies as measles spreadsSpeed Read Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes unsupported claims about containing the spread as vaccine skepticism grows
-
Texas outbreak brings 1st US measles death since 2015Speed read The outbreak is concentrated in a 'close-knit, undervaccinated' Mennonite community in rural Gaines County
-
Mystery illness spreading in Congo rapidly kills dozensSpeed Read The World Health Organization said 53 people have died in an outbreak that originated in a village where three children ate a bat carcass
-
Ozempic can curb alcohol cravings, study findsSpeed read Weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy may also be helpful in limiting alcohol consumption
