What happened
Shares of Moderna (MRNA -2.45%) fell 7% on Monday, following President Joe Biden's interview on 60 Minutes on Sunday.
So what
President Biden's comments on the state of the COVID-19 pandemic clearly caught the attention of investors. During the interview, journalist Scott Pelley asked the president, "Is the pandemic over?" Here's what he had to say:
The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lot of work on it. It's ... but the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one's wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it's changing.
Moderna's shares sank after the president's comments, as did those of fellow vaccine makers Pfizer, BioNTech, and Novavax.
Now what
Many people will likely take issue with President Biden's statement. COVID-19 is still a public health emergency of international concern, according to the World Health Organization. Tens of thousands of people are being infected by the disease each day in the U.S. alone, while daily average deaths remain in the hundreds.
Still, case counts and hospitalizations appear to be lowering. And many Americans are forgoing vaccinations and booster shots for a host of reasons.
These trends -- and Biden's comments -- could further dampen demand for Moderna's coronavirus vaccines, at a time when the biotech's new omicron-focused booster shots were expected to be a key revenue and profit driver.
But Moderna has accumulated a war chest of cash from its vaccine sales that it's using to fund its promising research program. If Moderna can successfully develop new drugs for diseases such as influenza and HIV, it could help to offset a downturn in its COVID-related revenue.
