It seems crazy to think that the COVID-19 outbreak started ramping up two and a half years ago. It’s felt like a lifetime and yet it’s also felt like no time has passed at all.
Thankfully, the pandemic that we’ll all remember for years to come has simmered down as of late. Many believe that this is thanks to the vaccines that were made for the virus—with a large portion of them being made and distributed by none other than pharmaceutical giant Moderna.
However, just because COVID-19 has slowed down doesn’t mean that we’re out of the woods. Other viruses have now taken up the mantel for the scariest viral bully in the playground, with the latest one sporting an intimidating name of Monkeypox.
But if you ask Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel how he feels about it, he’ll tell you that this virus isn’t as serious as COVID-19 was. They’re working on a vaccine for it, but it’s not as pressing as other more dangerous threats.
“We don’t have the urgency we had when COVID happened,” said Bancel. “Because as you know, there is already a vaccine on the market.”
The reason that there’s already a vaccine for monkeypox is that it’s actually been around for five years, unbeknownst to many, in Africa. Bavarian Nordic, a Denmark-based company, is the maker of the vaccine.
Although other companies are working hard to make their own version of the monkeypox vaccine, Bancel’s statement leads us to believe that perhaps they’re not losing sleep over it just yet.