COVID-19: 'We might not be in a great spot in the fall': Moderna CEO

While the U.S. waits on funding and for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to decide on which virus strain to attack through boosters, Moderna and other vaccine companies are anticipating waning immunity to become a concern.

"This virus is not getting less infectious," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told Yahoo Finance. "As you see more and more infectious variants ... We are not done with this virus mutating," he said.

The biggest risk in the fall, if boosting is delayed, is the potential for hospitals to fill up with those that are the most vulnerable all over again, Bancel said.

The increased circulation from the intersection of waning immunity and a more transmissible variant, as is being observed with more Omicron subvariants in the U.S. and abroad, is the real risk, he said.

"We have a risk in the fall — if we don't have the booster campaign early enough —that we might not be in a great spot in the fall," Bancel said.

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Another pandemic is inevitable, scientists say. Mass vaccination is not. Scientists can make safe and effective vaccines against novel pathogens. The bigger challenge is persuading everyone to use them. NBC News

In April, more than 1,000 vaccine experts gathered in Washington, D.C. for the first time since the pandemic began. Over four days, scientists, doctors and drugmakers pored over cutting-edge research and tackled some of the most pressing questions in the world of vaccines.