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Pfizer has been accused of 'daylight robbery' after it emerged the company plans to sell its Covid shot with an estimated 10,000 percent markup in the US next year — despite enjoying extraordinary surges in profits during the pandemic. Once the government uses up the doses it has already bought, Pfizer will hike the price to as much as $130 for a single dose of the vaccine which is estimated by some experts to cost just $1.18 to make. Health insurers are expected to cover the cost of the shots for those who have coverage, but wall street analysts warn...

After the remarkable success of the mRNA vaccines in protecting people against COVID-19, scientists are turning their attention next to another annual respiratory scourge: influenza. Both Moderna and Pfizer—makers of the first vaccines to earn U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval using the mRNA technology—are studying whether subbing in the influenza virus’ genetic material in that platform will prove equally fruitful. On Sept. 14, Pfizer announced that the first volunteers had received doses of its mRNA flu shot; the Phase 3 study will involve more than 25,000 adults in the U.S. ages 18 and up who will be randomly...

While it’s expected the state will mirror updated COVID-19 guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gov. J.B. Pritzker insists he’ll continue disaster proclamations to capture more federal dollars.

The Biden administration is preparing a sweeping initiative to develop a next generation of Covid-19 immunizations that would thwart future coronavirus variants and dramatically reduce rates of coronavirus infection or transmission, building on current shots whose impact has been mainly to prevent serious illness and death, the White House told STAT. To kick off the effort, the White House is gathering key federal officials, top scientists, and pharmaceutical executives including representatives of Pfizer and Moderna for a Tuesday “summit” to discuss the new technologies and lay out a road map for developing them. “These are vaccines that are going to...

Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla has said he is working on the creation of a new vaccine against COVID-19 that could be taken annually in order for people to become more “compliant” in taking COVID vaccines. Bourla made the comment at a press briefing organized by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA), which took place Wednesday and where he discussed the creation of a new COVID vaccine. “What the world really needs is a vaccine that can last a year,” stated Bourla. The head of the pharmaceutical giant described this idea as “the optimal public-health solution,” arguing that...

The Biden administration will be giving elderly Americans a second COVID-19 booster shot, multiple people familiar with the plan told The New York Times. Those above the age of 50 will be able to get a second booster of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. However, multiple issues complicate the plan as the administration has to calculate when the next COVID-19 wave could hit the U.S., sources told The Times; the administration will want to get the second booster to the elderly before another wave hits, but not too far before that protection could wane. Other complications include how to...

The U.S. Congress authorized spending $9 billion on funding an initial two-shot vaccine and a booster shot for all Americans. But now, as the pharmaceutical companies are telling Congress that another booster will be needed, the administration is pleading poverty. “We do have sufficient current inventory of vaccines, both at states and pharmacies and other access points around the country and in our central inventory for fourth doses if they’re called for this spring for our most vulnerable, including seniors,” Biden COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said. “Where we do not have sufficient doses is later in the year if...

Pfizer CEO says a fourth booster shot 'is necessary' Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on Sunday that a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will be necessary to continue to help keep hospitalizations manageable and sicknesses more mild. "Right now, the way that we have seen, it is necessary, a fourth booster right now. The protection that you are getting from the third, it is good enough, actually quite good for hospitalizations and deaths," Bourla said while appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Despite the mildness of the dominant omicron variant and the evidence that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine hasn't stopped infection or transmission of SARS-CoV-2 while posing serious health risks, the company's CEO is asking the FDA to grant emergency use authorization for a second booster, a fourth shot."Clearly there is a need in an environment of omicron to boost the immune response," Albert Bourla said Friday on CNBC's "Squawk Box."Bourla claimed the data indicate the protection against severe disease after three doses is "very good." But the protection wanes after only three or four months, he acknowledged.In January, Bourla acknowledged that...

Project Veritas claims it caught an FDA executive on camera saying Covid boosters would become annual requirements and that the Biden administration has financial incentives for pushing the vaccine. The far-right activist group released a report Wednesday that includes edited video snippets from at least two secretly-recorded conversations in January and February with Christopher Cole, the FDA's executive officer for its medical countermeasures initiative. 'Biden wants to inoculate as many people as possible,' Cole said during a February 3 conversation inside a restaurant, according to footage obtained by Veritas. 'I think it's going to be a gradual thing. Schools are...

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla admitted Saturday that he is hoping people around the world will receive annual COVID-19 vaccine shots. The admission comes as the global community implements booster campaigns because, as Reuters noted , the COVID vaccines have proven to be effective at preventing most deaths and hospitalizations, but not transmission. What are the details? Speaking with Israel's N12 News, Bourla was asked whether he believes COVID booster shoots will be administered on a regular basis, such as every four or five months. In response, Bourla expressed hope in annual vaccine shots. "This will not be a good scenario,"...

Biden CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told the nation on Friday that soon, a booster shot will be needed in order for one to be considered “up to date” with their Covid vaccines. “What we’re really working to do is pivot the language to make sure that everybody is as up to date with their Covid-19 vaccine as they personally could be, should be based on when they got their last vaccine,” she told CBSN. Walensky continued, “Importantly, right now, we’re pivoting our language. We really want to make sure people are up to date. That means if you recently got...

It all started with a simple admission. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla joined Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani to discuss vaccines, boosters, and Omicron. He admitted what we already know based on the results we’ve been seeing, but in doing so he opened up a can of worms. Here’s what he said, emphasis added: “So — and we know that the two doses of the vaccine offer very limited protection, if any. The three doses, with the booster, they offer reasonable protection against hospitalization and deaths — and, again, that’s, I think, very good — and less protection against the infection.” This...

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla acknowledged Monday that two doses of the vaccine his company produces with BioNTech "offer very limited protection, if any" against the dominant omicron variant.Adding a third dose, he said in an interview with Yahoo Finance, provides "reasonable protection against hospitalization and deaths.""Against death, very good (protection), and less protection against infection," the Pfizer chief added.In a separate interview Monday, with CNBC, Bourla said the current COVID-19 mRNA vaccines "don’t have the safety profile that we hoped we can achieve with this technology."He said the pharmaceutical giant is working on a new vaccine "that will cover omicron...

The CEO of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said Monday that he hopes the coronavirus will be “controlled” by a combination of annual vaccinations and pills to treat illness, underscoring that the world has new tools to prevent serious sickness even as it faces a case surge. Albert Bourla, whose company manufactures a widely used coronavirus vaccine, said on CNBC that a “perfectly normal life” could be achieved with annual re-vaccination similar to annual flu shots and with pills for those who contract the virus.

WASHINGTON—As Covid-19 cases climb across the U.S., President Biden and his administration are preparing Americans to accept the virus as a part of daily life, in a break from a year ago when he took office with a pledge to rein in the pandemic and months later said the nation was “closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus.” The recalibration of Mr. Biden’s message comes as the country braces for another round of disruptions wrought by the pandemic. A growing number of schools temporarily have returned to virtual instruction and many businesses are strained by staffing...

Days after White House COVID-19 advisor Anthony Fauci suggested the federal government is considering changing its definition of “fully vaccinated” to include a booster dose, he indicated Tuesday that such efforts are underway. The Epoch Times “We’re using the terminology now ‘keeping your vaccinations up to date,’ rather than what ‘fully vaccinated’ means,” Fauci said during a National Institutes of Health-hosted commentary. “Right now, optimal protection is with a third shot of an mRNA or a second shot of a J&J,” he said, referring to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as well as the Pfizer and Moderna shots, which use...

The Biden administration has warned COVID-19 test makers and labs that demand for tests could soon double or even triple, five people familiar with the situation told Politico. The Health and Human Services Department’s Testing and Diagnostic Working Group shared an internal model with the diagnostic industry that projects the country needing more COVID-19 tests on top of the more than 1.6 million currently used daily. The model shows 3 million to 5 million daily tests needed by January or February, an estimate that makes the assumption the omicron variant is three to five times more transmissible than delta and...

Pfizer announced Tuesday that a study found that its oral, antiviral COVID-19 pill Paxlovid reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 89 percent in high-risk patients. Pfizer said that the 2,246 patients in the study were given the pill within three days of symptom onset, adding that they had mild to moderate symptoms as well as an underlying medical condition or an increased risk of becoming severely infected by COVID-19. The company said the results have been shared with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a part of the company's request for emergency use authorization. Pfizer requested...

People around the world have now been lining up to get their third Covid-19 “booster” jab due to their “waning” protection from the first round, the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, has announced that people are going to need a fourth booster sooner than expected.In an interview with CNBC, the CEO said that Pfizer is carrying out studies on the Omicron “variant”, stating that whilst results may show that a third shot could fight the variant, the pharma giant is already preparing for a fourth vaccine that will only boost profits.Bourla said that while he originally believed a fourth shot...