Moderna CEO says fourth booster shot may be necessary due to gradual decline in booster efficacy

The head of one of the leading COVID vaccine companies told investors that a fourth booster shot for the general public is likely necessary, and that other countries have already bought more jabs to prepare.

It was in early December 2021 that the Pfizer CEO made a similar forecast due to the Omicron variant.

On Thursday, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told investors at a Goldman Sachs conference that the protection from the first booster shot in itself is likely to wear off within a matter of months, according to CNBC.

Bancel revealed that places like South Korea and the United Kingdom have already ordered another round of booster shots in response to this news.

"I still believe we're going to need boosters in the fall of '22 and forward," the Moderna CEO said.  "We have been saying that we believe first this virus is not going away. We're going to have to live with it."

A Wall Street Journal piece published on Thursday indicates that the Biden administration is prepping to tell Americans that COVID is a "part of life" now.

The CNBC report cites a United Kingdom study that found "Moderna and Pfizer's two-dose vaccines are only about 10% effective at preventing symptomatic infection from omicron 20 weeks after the second dose."

This UK Health Security Agency study concluded, however, that booster doses are upwards of 75 percent effective at preventing infection for the first two weeks after an initial booster shot. But even that declines onward after a four week period.

In North America there's been a gradual approach towards changing the definition of what it means to be "fully vaccinated" to three shots. Last week, it was reported that the Biden administration wants to reframe it into making sure the general public's vaccination status is "up to date" in broader terms.

Meanwhile in Quebec earlier today the province's Health Minister Christian Dube announced an official change of the definition of "fully vaccinated," but didn’t give a date as to when it'd come into effect.

Despite being vaccinated and boosted, a number of politicians, celebrities, and more have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks. It came as a shock, according to Whoopi Goldberg, on Wednesday that she tested positive for COVID despite being "triple vaxxed." She joins a long line of politicians who in recent weeks announced their positive test results as well. But with those revelations they touted messaging that being vaccinated apparently lessened their symptoms.