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FRIDAY, Jan. 8, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said the company's COVID-19 vaccine may prevent infection for years, CBS News reported Thursday.
While speaking at a virtual event hosted by Oddo BHF, a financial service group, Bancel said the "nightmare scenario" that the vaccine will not work is now in the past.
"We believe there will be protection potentially for a couple of years," Bancel said. The "antibody decay generated by the vaccine in humans goes down very slowly," Reuters reported, according to CBS News. Questions about elderly patients remain because their immune system weakens over time, Bancel noted.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that because reinfection is possible with COVID-19, even people who have already had the virus should still receive the vaccine. Natural immunity varies from person to person, CBS News reported.