Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla tests positive for COVID-19: 'I am grateful to have received four doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine'

Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert Bourla, who received four COVID-19 vaccine shots, has tested positive for the illness.

"I would like to inform the public that I have tested positive for COVID-19. I am grateful to have received four doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and I am feeling well while experiencing very mild symptoms. I have started a course of PAXLOVID™ (nirmatrelvir [PF-07321332] tablets and ritonavir tablets), I am isolating in place as well as following all public health precautions," Bourla said in a statement.

"We have come so far in the past two years in our efforts to battle this disease that I am confident that I will have a speedy recovery. I am incredibly grateful for the tireless efforts of my Pfizer colleagues who worked to make vaccines and treatments available for me and people around the world," he said.

Bourla joins the ranks of other prominent COVID-19 vaccination promoters who have received multiple jabs and still tested positive.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci tested positive for COVID-19 in June. "He is fully vaccinated and has been boosted twice. He is currently experiencing mild symptoms," an NIAID statement noted at the time.

Later in June, Fauci discussed his experience with the illness, including a "Paxlovid rebound."

He said that he took Paxlovid for five days and then subsequently tested negative for three days straight before testing positive on the fourth day. Fauci said that he began feeling even "worse than in the first go-around," and started another course of Paxlovid — at the time of the interview, he said he was on day four of his second round of Paxlovid, and that while he was not symptom free, he felt "reasonably good."

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, after previously testing positive for the illness earlier this year.

Austin said in a statement, "my doctor told me that my fully vaccinated status, including two booster shots, is why my symptoms are less severe than would otherwise be the case."

"Vaccinations continue to both slow the spread of COVID-19 and to make its health effects less severe. Vaccination remains a medical requirement for our workforce, and I continue to encourage everyone to get fully vaccinated and boosted," Austin declared.