new study shows moderna s booster shot still offers protection against the variant after six months. we want to welcome our viewers around the united states and the world. i m wolf blitzer, and you re in the situation room. let s get right to the breaking news, justice stephen breyer deciding to retire from the u.s. supreme court giving president biden a chance to nominate his successor while democrats still control the u.s. senate. m.j. lee is joining us right now. this is a very significant development for the supreme court and for the biden administration. reporter: that s right, wolf. a supreme court vacancy is a huge moment for any sitting presidency and one of president biden s big campaign promises was to put a black woman on the supreme court if the opportunity
a new study shows the moderna booster shot is effective against the omicron variant for at least six months, but the antibodies do wane over time prompting the company to advance its omicron-specific booster to the next phase of clinical trials. let s discuss with the former cdc director dr. tom frieden. dr. frieden, what do you make of these results on its current booster shot? are you reassured? well, let s take the big picture here. it s really important sorry i m getting feedback on this. i don t know if you re hearing me okay. we re hearing you fine. the vaccines are working remarkably well as preventing severe disease and death.
it s crucially important that people who haven t yet started vaccinations, 60 million people in the u.s., get vaccinated. if you haven t gotten your booster, get your booster. get up to date with your vaccinations. bottom line, it s great that pharmaceutical companies are making new vaccines, but it s up to scientists and other doctors outside of the pharmaceutical industry to tell us whether we need them, when and how often. when do you think, dr. frieden, americans will start getting omicron-specific boosters? moderna is advancing that vaccine in the next phase in these clinical trials. i don t know if this will ever be approved for americans. really, i m disappointed that a company like moderna might be doing something like this and trying to adjust their market valuation by saying that many people may get this vaccine. maybe yes, maybe no.
frustrated at the u.s. s messaging. we did see an inkling of that today with the foreign minister reiterating that they do not believe at this stage, with the current number of russian trooms massed on that border well over 100,000, but they do not believe that russia has enough troops currently to launch an all-out invasion. they are very keen to emphasize that point. they do not see the risk here of an all-out invasion at this point in time, wolf. very interesting. clarissa ward in ukraine, thank you. coming up, more breaking news we re following, this time from moderna. the company now says its current covid booster shot provides durable protection against the omicron variant for at least six months.
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