Pfizer says pandemic could continue until 2024

Woman walking past Pfizer building.
(Image credit: KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images)

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."

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.