Pfizer vaccine may not stop the spread of COVID Pfizer's coronavirus jab may not prevent vaccinated people from spreading coronavirus, the firm's chairman admitted this week.
'I think that's something that needs to be examined. We're not certain about that right now,' said Albert Bourla, when asked by Dateline's Lester Holt about whether the shot would prevent transmission during the interview, which aired Thursday night.
The interview was recorded shortly before Pfizer confirmed that it will only be able to ship 50 million doses of its vaccine by the end of the year - half as many as the 100 million the pharmaceutical giant had promised - due to supply chain issues. It's the latest in a series of tumultuous developments for the vaccine-maker this week. Its shot became the first approved in the West on Wednesday when it was greenlit in the UK.
Clinical trials found the shot to be 95 percent effective at preventing people from developing COVID-19, which could mean stemming the pandemic's deadliness and burden on health care systems worldwide.
But Pfizer didn't collect data that would show whether volunteers who got its shot transmitted the virus (nor have other companies offered such data), so it's possible that highly-contagious virus could continue spreading after we have vaccines.
Pfizer's coronavirus jab may not prevent vaccinated people from spreading coronavirus, the firm's chairman admitted this week.
'I think that's something that needs to be examined. We're not certain about that right now,' said Albert Bourla, when asked by Dateline's Lester Holt about whether the shot would prevent transmission during the interview, which aired Thursday night.
The interview was recorded shortly before Pfizer confirmed that it will only be able to ship 50 million doses of its vaccine by the end of the year - half as many as the 100 million the pharmaceutical giant had promised - due to supply chain issues.