COVID-19: Pfizer head sees a return to ‘normal life’ in the spring

Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, said in an interview published late Sunday that he believes there will be a “return to normal life” sometime in the spring after over two years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report.

Bourla made the comments to Le Figaro, the French newspaper, according to the Financial Times. He credits the volume of testing, vaccinations and emerging treatments as key factors at play for the world’s eventual emergence from the COVID-19 epidemic, which has killed 850,000 in the U.S. alone.

Albert Bourla attends The New York Times DealBook Online Summit on November 9, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Ryan Muir/Getty Images via The New York Times) (Ryan Muir/Getty Images via The New York Times)

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The antiviral COVID-19 drugs are seen as the next step in the fight against the virus. The vaccines have been credited with helping to prevent deaths during the recent wave of infections, but critics say they have done little to slow the disease’s spread due to the transmissibility of the omicron variant.

A ground crew member moves pallets of a shipment of Pfizer’s antiviral COVID-19 pills, Paxlovid, as they arrive at a Incheon International Airport cargo terminal on January 13, 2022 in Incheon, South Korea. (Photo by Jung Yeon-Je – Pool/Getty Images) ( Jung Yeon-Je – Pool/Getty Images)

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Last month, U.S. health regulators authorized Paxlovid to treat early COVID-19 infections. Those who have taken the drug have seen a nearly 90 percent reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report