Fact Check By: Craig Jones, Newswise
Truthfulness:
Claim:
The Pfizer CEO ADMITS the original COVID shot series is a FAILURE and some of you still can’t admit you were sold a complete lie - when will you finally say enough is enough??
Claim Publisher and Date: Comment widely shared on Twitter on 2022-01-12
An interview with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is being used as proof that the initial vaccinations were “a failure” or that the vaccine does not protect against COVID-19. We find claims that represent this interview as proof of vaccine failure are false and misleading. Bourla's comments were specific about the Omicron variant of the SARS-COV-2 virus. As this study published in The Lancet medical journal reported, the vaccine remained highly effective, at 90% for at least six months, in preventing hospitalization and death, including against the previously dominant Delta variant.
In the interview with Yahoo Finance, which took place on Jan. 10, Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani asks Bourla about how the company is possibly changing its strategy with the omicron variant, a more contagious variant with a large number of mutations, making it better at evading vaccine-obtained immunity. Bourla said: “We know that the two doses of a vaccine offer very limited protection, if any. The three doses with a booster, they offer reasonable protection against hospitalization and deaths. Against deaths, I think very good, and less protection against infection.” His point is nothing new. Pfizer and BioNTech have said in the past that two-doses might not be sufficient to protect against infection with the Omicron variant, but “may still offer protection against severe disease.” Bourla said Pfizer is working on a new version of the vaccine. This goes in line with what experts have been saying about how the current COVID-19 vaccines may need to be updated to ensure they are effective against Omicron and future variants.
As mentioned in this news release by Massachusetts General Hospital, a study published in the journal Cell indicates that traditional dosing regimens of COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States do not produce antibodies capable of recognizing and neutralizing the Omicron variant.
The lead investigator of the study comments...
The three-dose mRNA vaccine regimen—that is, the traditional two doses and a booster of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines—provides somewhat lower levels of neutralizing antibodies against Omicron than it does against the COVID-19 wild type strain or Delta variant. But the study’s results strongly support the CDC’s advice that COVID-19 booster shots are appropriate for anyone 16 and older, and that mRNA vaccines are preferred.
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