that includes 18 more howitzers on top of what the u.s. has sent in. more than 36,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, and ammunition for the himars system, approved earlier this month. four of those weapons systems, multiple launch rocket systems that can strike at a far greater range. that s about a third of the billion dollars. the other two-thirds is known as the ukraine security assistance initiative and that will go to purchase through direct contracts with weapons manufacturers more weapons for ukraine. that includes two harpoon coastal defense systems, thousands of night vision goggles, thousands of radios so that won t be as fast, but the u.s. s position is the fight in eastern ukraine is an incremental fight. russia, yes, is making gains, but there is still time to get the critical systems in. how will we find out and when will we see this? the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said the training on that advanced himars system for the first group wrapped up today.
of a study that s not yet ready to change my practice, because all i have seen is the press release, and it doesn t change my practice. as a doctor, i am prescribing paxlovid to people who are high risk, people who are older, people who have multiple chronic conditions. and we have a lot of studies from other countries, hong kong, israel, and elsewhere, showing paxlovid still has benefit for high risk folks. people who are immuno suppressed, people who have cancer, who have diabetes, even if they re vaccinated. so the takeaway is if you re older or have underlying health problems, as soon as you test positive for covid, call your doctor or go to an urgent care or if you re in a state where pharmacists can prescribe it, go to your pharmacy and get that prescription. the quicker you start taking it, the higher the likelihood of it working. doctor, thank so much. when the price of the story can be your life, we re going to take you to one of the most dangerous places in the world for
locations nationwide. it will be easy. just show your vaccination card and you ll get a booster. but it s all going to depend on the fda giving the green light. dr. david rubin is director of policy lab at the children s hospital of philadelphia. thank you, doctor, for joining us. so cases are up 36% in just the last week. today we got new data from the cdc showing immunity from the vaccine is dropping as the months go by. but experts are split on this third dose. what do you think, is this the way to keep folks safe? you know, i think it s a little bit premature to think that everyone in the country needs a booster dose yet. certainly there are elderly folks and folks who are immunocompromised, people who have cancer, who have not been able to boost a response against the vaccine. it certainly makes sense to try to get the booster out to those people as soon as possible.
hospital of philadelphia. thank you, doctor, for joining us. so cases are up 36% in just the last week. today we got new data from the cdc showing immunity from the vaccine is dropping as the months go by. but experts are split on this third dose. what do you think, is this the way to keep folks safe? you know, i think it s a little bit premature to think that everyone in the country needs a booster dose yet. certainly there are elderly folks and folks who are immunocompromised, people who have cancer, who have not been able to boost a response against the vaccine. it certainly makes sense to try to get the booster out to those people as soon as possible. but, you know, i think the controversy is really whether people suspect we re seeing more severe disease among those who has been vaccinated and thus far there hasn t been pervasive evidence that there s been breakthrough infections of a magnitude that we should be concerned. that said, the cdc has data
trying to get first doses into people. if we could get first doses into people and get the majority of our population to that immune state, we could certainly begin to stem the tide. i think boosters, when you talk about boosters, we have to think about the immunocompromised, people who have cancer, chemotherapeutic agents, transplant patients, organ transplant patients. ha we don t know even though these patients may receive the full dose of the vaccine, we really don t know if they reach full immunity because their immune systems are suppressed and those particular patients might benefit, especially from a third dose at this point. and to that point, i just want to read you this tweet interest dr. jonathan reiner who is a frequent guest on cnn, writes i gave a kidney transplant patient with no covid antibodies a prescription for a booster dose and three pharmacies refused to give him the shot. cdc needs to move forward with