Pfizer CEO expects COVID to stick around, but a 'return to normal life' this spring.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says that COVID-19 will be here to stay, but there will be a "return to normal life" this spring, after what he expects to be the last COVID wave with lockdown restrictions. 

Bourla believes that COVID "most likely" will circulate for years to come, but he told French outlet BFM TV on Monday that Pfizer's new antiviral pill Paxlovid "changes everything." The treatment reduces hospitalizations and deaths in more vulnerable groups by nearly 90%, The Times of Israel reports.

He told BFM TV that Pfizer was planning a 520 million euro ($593.2 million) investment with French company Novasep to create an oral COVID treatment over the next five years.

"It’s important that people receive the three-dose regimen of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, and will likely then require annual boosters although the immunocompromised could require them every four months," Bourla said according to The Times of Israel. "Children must be vaccinated in order to protect them. Its effectiveness in children is very, very, very good."

In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro published Sunday, Bourla stated that he believes vaccinations and testing are key to fighting the pandemic, and he believes "return to normal life" will begin this spring.