COVID Pandemic Could Extend Till 2024; Know The Reason Behind Pfizer’s Projection

San Francisco: The COVID-19 pandemic could extend till 2024 as the lower-dose version of its vaccine for 2-4 years olds generated a weaker immune response than expected, Pfizer Inc said on Friday.

Pfizer has developed the vaccine with Germany’s BioNTech SE. While a 3-microgram dose of its vaccine was tested on 2-5 year-olds, a 10-microgram dose was used in 5-11 year-olds and 30-microgram doses in everyone over 12. In children aged 6 to 24 months, the low-dose version of the vaccine generated an immune response consistent with that of older vaccine recipients, Reuters reported.

The company said it had expected data of its testing of three-dose course of the vaccine in all age groups under 16, including 2-4-year-olds, this year. Despite the delay, it would go ahead and file for emergency use authorization in the second quarter of 2022.

“The data are illustrating the impact of a booster and that our vaccine works best as a primary regimen of three doses,” Pfizer chief scientific officer Mikael Dolsten said on a conference call.