Pfizer CEO says it's possible to distribute both boosters and primary doses

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla appeared on ABC's "This Week."

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday it's possible to provide both COVID-19 booster shots as well as doses for people who have not yet been vaccinated.

"I think it is also not the right thing to try to resolve it with an 'or' when you can resolve it with an 'and,'" Bourla told ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "It's not, 'Shall we give boosters or give primary doses to other people.' I think the answer should be, 'Let's give both boosters and doses for other people.'"

With millions more Americans now newly eligible for a booster COVID-19 shot from Pfizer, Bourla's optimism punctuates what's become a protracted, hot-button issue amongst the scientific community over who needs the boost and when. The White House has stressed in both private and public that the rationale for green-lighting boosters must be uncoupled from the question of global vaccinations and that one does not preclude the other.

Just after midnight Friday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky endorsed her independent advisory panel's recommendation for seniors and other medically vulnerable Americans to get a booster shot of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine six months after their second dose, partially overruling the panel by adding a recommendation for a third dose for people who are considered high risk due to where they work.