How likely is a life-threatening new COVID-19 variant? Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel shared his thoughts in an interview with Bloomberg.

Bancel believes that there is a 20% chance that a future variant will be disruptive and dangerous, but that there is an “80% chance that the variants that we’re going to see in the future are manageable from a severity standpoint and vaccine production.” He clarified, however, that “we should always be very cautious, because there’s a 20% chance that something happens in some of the new variants that is very virulent.”

As the pharmaceutical giant is looking to get a fourth dose of its COVID-19 vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Bancel told CNBC that the company wants to give regulators “flexibility,” explaining that younger people who are immunocompromised may need a fourth dose sooner than others.

“We submitted all the data that we have to give [regulators] the best possible information to make the best possible decision,” Bancel said.

Moderna announced Wednesday that its two-dose mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is effective in children under the age of 6. According to its data, two 25 microgram doses of its vaccine produced an almost identical immune response in children under 6 compared to two 100 microgram doses for adults aged 18 to 25.

“The vaccine provides the same level of protection against COVID in young kids as it does in adults. We think that’s good news,” Moderna president Dr. Stephen Hoge said.

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