doctor, thanks for joining. so when the fda advisory board meets tomorrow, they are going to have a lot to consider when it comes to these boosters. how do you see this playing out? well, i really don t know, don. i mean, it s interesting. before all these fda meetings in the past, we had a really good inclination of how it was going to turn out, you know, before the authorization of the vaccines and and all of that. but there s been a lot of back and forth. i mean, as you know, it made news when two senior vaccine scientists at the fda basically said they were going to leave. and it was subsequently found out it was over this issue of the boosters. so i think what s going to happen is there are going to be four big questions that are going to have to be addressed there. and we sort of laid em out here. you know, how much is immunity really waning? pfizer says the immunity wanes about 6% every two months but stays steady for severe illness. how severe are the breakthrough infectio
two senior vaccine scientists at fda basically said they were going to leave. we subsequently found out it was over this issue of boosters. so i think what s going to happen is there will be four wig questions that are going to have to be addressed there. we sort of lay them out here. how much is immunity really waning? pfizer says the immunity wanes about 6% every two months but stays steady for severe illness. how severe are the breakthrough infections? i think this is a big one. you could have a totally asymptomatic break think infection. i came back positive? i m surprised. it could be that all the way to people having severe breakthrough infections. they re going to need to break down that data a bit. how long does the booster effect last? we don t know. every six months? or a booster and we re set for a while? finally, how much do boosters really reduce transmission? i find this so interesting. we often look to israel, because they re ahead of us in terms of
well know. when you have the companies that have 100 or more people they re either going to get vaccinated or get tested. when you have the federal government particularly the executive branch, when you have individuals who are involved in patient care through medicare and medicaid, they ve got to get vaccinated. so he s really done an awful lot in the area of mandates and he ll consider doing more at the time it s appropriate. there s a bit of a debate swirling about booster shots. and i think, again, this is a place where there s not the science is a little unsettled, a little unclear. there s some arguments in both directions. i wanted to read to you some political reporting on this. the white house and top officials said in august they planned shots for most adults beginning september 20th. those are booster shots. the move sparked tensions among biden s top aids, the cdc and fda on questions whether the data supported the goal. to senior vaccine scientists who are leaving the
lost the election, let s win legitimately this time. chris christie was willing to say that. except not say trump s name. don t do debate prep with him. donald trump s lies have convi convinced so many people that there was major voting fraud. election officials have been threatened, harassed just for doing their jobs. listen to this voice mail. you rigged my. [ bleep ] election you [ bleep ] we re coming for you claire. i hope you get what s coming to you, you fraudulent [ bleep ] it s frightening, it s real. vaccine scientists, debating the need for booster shots for the general population.
there is an ongoing debate about boosters. the white house target date for rolling out a third pfizer dose is now just one week away. remember, the 20th. but it s something the fda still has to green light, and now two retiring fda vaccine scientists are part of a group of efforts who say data does not support getting booster shots right now. cnn medical correspondent elizabeth cohn joins us with this. this is the latest chapter in the debate over boosters. walk us through it. it really is interesting. when you think about the discussion at the end of last year, about whether or not to approve a covid-19 vaccine. there was no debate. everyone was on the same side. these vaccines are a great idea. there s a lot of debate about the booster shot programs. i m detecting bitterness when i talk to people involved in the decision making. let s look at the big picture. why would want to get a booster, you want to get a booster if the