BioNTech co-founder says Covid-19 is here to stay but will become manageable

The co-founder and chief medical officer of BioNTech, the German firm which developed the Pfizer vaccine, has said that while the Covid-19 virus will continue to spread for some years, it will gradually become manageable.

“Covid will become manageable. It already has started to become manageable,” Dr. Ozlem Tureci told CNBC, adding that a new normal is necessary “because this virus will accompany us for, still, some years.”

Asked about concerns over new coronavirus variants, she said BioNTech “continuously assess those upcoming variants, and there will be more.”

“For all these variants which are currently circulating, it seems that boosters alone, bringing the waning immune responses back to high levels, are suitable and do protect,” she said.

Tureci co-founded German-based BioNTech in 2008 with her husband, Chief Executive Ugur Sahin. She said more data was needed to find a safe route out of the pandemic and that she could imagine future boosters could be given “every 12 or every 18 months.”