Moderna CEO Sounds Alarm on Reduced Vaccine Effectiveness Against Omicron: ‘This Is Not Going to Be Good’

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As the world continues to investigate whether the Omicron variant poses a threat to global health, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel is issuing a potentially dire warning that current vaccines may not be effective against the new strain of the coronavirus.

Bancel gave an interview to the Financial Times where he predicted a “material drop” in vaccine effectiveness. Even though he admitted that more data is necessary to project Omicron’s severity, Bancel said the drop-off could be big enough that current vaccines will not be on par with the effectiveness they had in dealing with the Delta variant.

“There is no world, I think, where (the effectiveness) is the same level,” said Bancel. “I think it’s going to be a material drop. I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to…are like, ‘This is not going to be good.'”

The emergence of Omicron has already triggered numerous actions around the world to prevent rapid spread, though the strain seems to work differently from previous versions of Covid, and it remains unclear how dangerous it’s going to be. Medical officials seem most concerned at the moment with the variant’s high level of contagiousness and speculation that it could “evade” protections from vaccines and natural immunity.

In recent days, the WHO has emphasized that more data needs to be gathered to understand Omicron, even as they condemn travel bans to countries that have seen outbreaks. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden insists he is not considering a return to lockdowns, and he urged the public not to panic in response to the unfolding situation.