Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla acknowledges the innate difficulty of defeating COVID

COVID is not going away, no matter how much we wish it would. Dr. Manoj Gandhi, who is senior medical director at Thermo Fisher Scientific, told Fortune: “We are probably only in the fourth inning, maybe the top of the fifth.” For those who don’t know baseball, that means five more to go…and there’s always the possibility of overtime—or, in baseball parlance, “extra innings.”

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla had a similar message when he spoke to Ellen McGirt and me for this week’s episode of our podcast, Leadership Next. Ellen asked what’s top of mind for him when it comes to COVID. Bourla responded:

“How to stay ahead of it. It is a virus that has some characteristics that are why it became a pandemic. One is that it changes constantly. And the second is that vaccinations or natural infections don’t create durable immune protection. The new protection wanes. You can get the disease, and then you can get it again.”

I also asked Bourla what lessons he had learned over the past two years that are applicable to other business challenges.

“I think by far the most important learning was that when you set up very big, dramatic goals for your people, and when they tell you it’s impossible, but you continue emphasizing that that’s the goal, you will be surprised how much better they will do…People have a tendency to severely underestimate what they can do. And when you ask them and you empower them to do things, you will be really, really surprised.”

Also, yesterday I spoke with Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat, who said the company plans to spend approximately $9.5 billion on offices and data centers across the U.S. this year, and create 12,000 new Google jobs in the U.S. by the end of the year.  

“We are continuing to bring more jobs and investment to diverse communities…There is a tremendous amount of talent in the U.S. and around the globe, and we want to provide an extraordinary experience for great talent…by providing more flexibility for mode of work.”

You can find Leadership Next on Apple or Spotify.

More news below.

Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com

TOP NEWS

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Inflation nation

There wasn’t much of a surprise in yesterday’s headline CPI figure. Consumer-price inflation hit a 41-year high, and that’s hitting households hard. That’s the bad news. The good? Inflation may have just peaked, Wall Street believes. Today, U.S. futures are rebounding, and bond yields are in retreat. Fortune

Dead end

If yesterday’s comments from Vladimir Putin are any indication, the war in Ukraine could grind on for a long time. The Russian president said peace talks were at a “dead end,” comments that sent stocks lower on Tuesday, and sent oil prices higher. Reuters

Suing Elon Musk

Yesterday we learned Twitter employees were pretty unhappy with Elon Musk. Now, it’s Twitter shareholders. A Twitter shareholder filed a federal suit this week in New York against Musk claiming that the billionaire’s tardy disclosure about his giant stake (by SEC rules, Musk was late by one day in filing the proper forms) amounts to securities fraud. The accuser says investors lost out, and that Musk himself saved a cool $143 million. NPR

AROUND THE WATERCOOLER

REI on cracking the diversity challenge 

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The innovation being spurred by war in Ukraine

There’s a silver lining that’s coming from the one-two-three combo of war, record food prices, and a climate crisis: a surge in investment in green tech. Take the example of green ammonia, a zero-emission fertilizer that doubles as a potent and promising fuel. I explain its significance in this week’s Breakthrough column. Fortune

Power couple

Asish Mohapatra and Ruchi Kalra are not just husband and wife, they each run a startup now worth more than $1 billion. The unicorn CEOs spoke with Fortune’s Biman Mukherji and shared their secrets for success. It’s a fascinating view into India’s booming entrepreneur class. Fortune

This edition of CEO Daily was edited by Bernhard Warner.