The new variant of coronavirus may require countries to vaccinate a higher proportion of their populations, raising the bar for achieving herd immunity, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said.
The new variant of coronavirus may require countries to vaccinate a higher proportion of their populations, raising the bar for achieving herd immunity, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said in a news conference Tuesday.
" the topic of herd immunity there is always the discussion about 60 to 70%," Sahin said."But if the virus becomes more efficient at infecting people, we might need even a high vaccination rate to ensure that normal life can continue without interruption." "But 60 to 70% of vaccination rate will really dramatically change the situation," Sahin added."It is not that we have to deal with outbreaks if the virus becomes more effective but it still would provide a more or less normal life."
But he also added that he has"scientific confidence" that the current Pfizer/BioNTech could work against the new variant of coronavirus spreading across the UK. The full data will be available in two weeks. According to Sahin, the new variant has nine mutations but as the vaccine contains more than 1,270 amino acids and only nine have changed it means the"99 percent of the protein is still the same."
Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Arbolado named President and CEO of PDI; Prieto-Romualdez is CEO of Inquirer GroupMANILA -- Philippine Daily Inquirer&039;s (PDI) Chief Operating Officer Rudyard S. Arbolado has taken over effective the start of the new year as President and Chief Executive Officer of the
Read more »
Gaerlan is new president and CEO of Clark Dev't Corp.
Read more »
ArcelorMittal plans $1-billion cost cuts under new CEOAditya Mittal will take over as CEO from his father Lakshmi, who will become executive chairman. Cost-cutting measures include reducing office staff by 20%.
Read more »
New CEO to cut 8,000 jobs as Heineken feels pandemic effectHeineken, the world's 2nd largest brewer, will slash thousands of jobs and reduce the number of its products to cut costs.
Read more »
Ferrari swerves questions over new CEO after profit slowdownJohn Elkann, Ferrari's chairman and acting CEO, says a search committee was set up to identify the right successor to Louis Camilleri, but provides no further details.
Read more »