Moderna CEO not hopeful that vaccine will be able to cope with Omicron variant

The CEO of Moderna does not expect that existing vaccines will be as effective at dealing with the Omicron variant compared to earlier strains.

Stéphane Bancel also warned that it could take months before pharma companies bring new vaccines to the market which are specific to the new variant.

“There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level . . . we had with [the] Delta [variant],” Bancel told the Financial Times.

“I think it’s going to be a material drop. I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to . . . are like, ‘This is not going to be good’,” he added.

Bancel’s comments are somewhat at odds with those made by various public health experts and politicians, many of whom have been more positive about the ability of existing vaccines to deal with the Omicron variant.

For example, Joe Biden described the new variant as a “cause for concern” but not a “cause for panic”.

Fears over the impact of the new variant are growing, despite the lack of information thus far, which is delaying the scheduled reopening of economies around the world.

Who knows what to believe anymore?