translated from Spanish: BioNTech founders estimate that the pandemic could be extended until mid-2022

The founders of the German laboratory BioNTech, responsible for one of the leading covid-19 vaccines, believe that the pandemic can last until mid-2022, when they expect all regions to have reached a high level of vaccinations and herd immunity.” By mid-2022, even regions with high population density such as India will have reached a high vaccination rate and herd immunity,” said the firm’s main manager, Ugur Sahin, at an event organized by The Wall Street Journal.According to Sahin, in the next 12 months it will look like a growing number of countries – both developed and developing – achieve that herd immunity thanks to vaccines. Sahin noted that in places like Europe and the United States the pandemic is already under control thanks to vaccines and the continuity of social estating measures, while infections increase in places like India, where there are far fewer vaccinated and it is more difficult to maintain social estating.” We need to ensure really high vaccination rates around the world. Otherwise, no one will be safe,” said BioNTech co-founder and CEO, who felt the pandemic will not end until there is herd immunity around the world. Sahin, whose firm partnered with US-based Pfizer for the production of its vaccine, explained that its company is expanding its manufacturing partnership to produce more doses that can help countries like India, where cases have recently skyrocketed. His wife and co-founder of BioNTech, zlem Téreci, noted that it may be necessary to combine different types of vaccines, including those of messenger RNA such as his company’s with others such as AstraZeneca’s, to accelerate immunization worldwide.” The more vaccines we have available, the better… Obviously in principle we can mix them up and combine them,” said Téreci, who is BioNTech’s medical chief.

Original source in Spanish