Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla tests positive for COVID-19: 'I am grateful to have received four doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine'
Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert Bourla, who received four COVID-19 vaccine shots, has tested positive for the illness.
"I would like to inform the public that I have tested positive for COVID-19. I am grateful to have received four doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and I am feeling well while experiencing very mild symptoms. I have started a course of PAXLOVID™ (nirmatrelvir [PF-07321332] tablets and ritonavir tablets), I am isolating in place as well as following all public health precautions," Bourla said in a statement.
"We have come so far in the past two years in our efforts to battle this disease that I am confident that I will have a speedy recovery. I am incredibly grateful for the tireless efforts of my Pfizer colleagues who worked to make vaccines and treatments available for me and people around the world," he said.
Bourla joins the ranks of other prominent COVID-19 vaccination promoters who have received multiple jabs and still tested positive.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci tested positive for COVID-19 in June. "He is fully vaccinated and has been boosted twice. He is currently experiencing mild symptoms," an NIAID statement noted at the time.
Later in June, Fauci discussed his experience with the illness, including a "Paxlovid rebound."
He said that he took Paxlovid for five days and then subsequently tested negative for three days straight before testing positive on the fourth day. Fauci said that he began feeling even "worse than in the first go-around," and started another course of Paxlovid — at the time of the interview, he said he was on day four of his second round of Paxlovid, and that while he was not symptom free, he felt "reasonably good."
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, after previously testing positive for the illness earlier this year.
Austin said in a statement, "my doctor told me that my fully vaccinated status, including two booster shots, is why my symptoms are less severe than would otherwise be the case."
"Vaccinations continue to both slow the spread of COVID-19 and to make its health effects less severe. Vaccination remains a medical requirement for our workforce, and I continue to encourage everyone to get fully vaccinated and boosted," Austin declared.
Pfizer CEO says he expects COVID-19 vaccine trials for children ages 5-11 will wrap up as soon as September
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says that he expects COVID-19 vaccine trials for children ages 5 to 11 will be completed in September.
On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for full use in people ages 16 years and older.
What are the details?
During a Monday interview with NBC News' Lester Holt, Bourla said that Pfizer is running "very large studies right now" on children younger than 12 years old and anticipates that those studies will end in September, at which point the biopharmaceutical company will submit its data to the FDA for emergency use authorization.
According to the network, the company expects further data on toddlers and children up to 4 years old soon thereafter.
Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA's director for its Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said that the trials continue and that the agency has to wait for Pfizer to submit the data from their trials in order to maintain a "good safety dataset."
"[W]e certainly want to make sure that we get it right in the children ages 5 through 11 and then even younger children after that," Marks said.
On Monday, Bourla said that he has high hopes that the FDA approval will encourage vaccine-hesitant to get inoculated against COVID-19.
"Based on the longer-term follow-up date that we submitted, today's approval for those aged 16 and over affirms the efficacy and safety profile of our vaccine at a time when it is urgently needed," Bourla said in response to the news. "I am hopeful this approval will help increase confidence in our vaccine, as vaccination remains the best tool we have to help protect lives and achieve herd immunity."
What else?
Following the FDA's Monday announcement, the American Academy of Pediatrics called for the agency to "work aggressively to authorize a vaccine for ages 11 and younger" as the highly contagious Delta variant wreaks havoc with the numbers of children being diagnosed with the coronavirus.
"The clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 11 years old and younger are underway, and we need to see the data from those studies before we give this vaccine to younger children," American Academy of Pediatrics President Lee Savio Beers said in a statement. "The dose may be different for younger ages. The AAP recommends against giving the vaccine to children under 12 until authorized by the FDA."
Pfizer CEO Speaks On Full FDA Approvalwww.youtube.com
Anything else?
Earlier this month, Bourla said that he believed that the vaccines for children within the 5-12 age group would be "very effective."
"And they will also safe, but the studies are ongoing," he added. "So we are waiting to finalize them so that we can properly analyze all the data, and then submit them again, I believe that we should be ready after summer to submit [to the FDA]."
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