Pfizer CEO says COVID-19 vaccine-resistant variant likely to emerge

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the company believes a COVID-19 vaccine-resistant variant will likely one day emerge, but it has a system in place to turn around a variant-specific vaccine within some three months, Fox News reported.

"Every time that the variant appears in the world, our scientists are getting their hands around it," Bourla said. "They are researching to see if this variant can escape the protection of our vaccine. We haven’t identified any yet but we believe that it is likely that one day, one of them will emerge."

Bourla noted a company process to develop a variant-specific vaccine within 95 days from identifying a variant of concern, the news source reported.

Infectious disease experts and public health officials have for months said that broadening the reach of existing vaccines across the population, in both the US and abroad, will reduce the opportunity for the virus to mutate.