everyone in september. then you have the fda, and cdc advisory committees meet, and put the brakes on it. saying, listen, the data is not, there it s there for select population, certain people over 65, certain people with chronic conditions. but not for everyone. and i think that really, lawrence, that put a lot of public health officials, doctors like, me in an awkward position. because people were confused. and many of us were confused. and then fast forward to here we are, finally, facing increasing cases. something of a fifth wave as many of us are seeing on the ground. and we are all just trying to prevent as much as possible. the booster is what i think, naturally would have been in a vaccine series. this isn t a failure of a primary series. this is a novel virus. we ve never had a vaccine for it before. and as we are learning, like many other viruses, we need at least three doses. maybe more. but at least for now, three doses to constitute a full immunity for least a year. wh
patel, she was white house policy director for health in the obama administration, also an msnbc contributor. dr. patel, i take it we should all get a booster now? yeah, lawrence. and as you heard doctor fauci say, six months from your primary series, we are seeing cases across the country that are double digit increases, and a shift where more people were vaccinated. not many but more than before are coming through with breakthrough infections. the ones ending up in the hospital tend to be people who would qualify for a booster and didn t get one. i think it s because of that ambiguity and confusion. so how did we get to the ambiguity? and then it seems like what doctor fauci is saying is that as of tomorrow, the ambiguities going to be over. yeah, i mean it s been months in the making, but first we have the biden administration talk about them being made for
is as of tomorrow, the ambiguity is going to be over. yeah, i mean, it s been months in the making. look, first we had the biden administration talk about boosters being available for everyone in september. then you had the fda, and cdc advisory committees meet putting the brakes on it, it s not there, it s there for select populations, over 65, certain people with chronic conditions, but not everyone, and i think that really, lawrence, put a lot of public health officials, doctors like me, pharmacists in an awkward position because people were confused and many of us were confused and then fast forward to here we are, finally facing increasing cases, something of a fifth wave as many of us are seeing on the ground, and we re all just trying to kind of prevent as much as possible and the booster is what i think naturally would happen in a vaccine series. this isn t a failure of the primary series. this is a novel virus. we have never had a vaccine for
need a booster to be completely vaccinated for the coronavirus. is there any sense at this stage what the efficacy of the booster will be? if you get a booster on december 1st, you re covered for how long? so that s going to be, i think, the next series. we do hope it s longer than six months, and i think that s why none of us can say, lawrence, you ll need a shot every year, every six months. we don t know, but we re hoping that this lasts a little bit longer than the six months that we know the original series lasts. here s the good news. a lot of americans don t realize it. that unlike the first series where you have to wait two weeks for the second dose, you really do get the benefits of that boost approximately 48 hours after that dose, almost immediately. so having this authorized tomorrow, lawrence, and having the ability to give boosters to everyone over 18 as early as saturday can make a big difference going into the
figure out what category do i fit in or not. if you re 18 or older, and you have been primarily vaccinated, go get boostered. joining us is dr. kavita patel, white house health policy director during the obama administration. she s a clinical physician, a brookings institution fellow and an msnbc medical contributor. dr. patel, i take it we should all get a booster now? yeah, lawrence, and especially, i think, as you heard dr. fauci say, six months from your primary series we re seeing cases across the country double digit increases, and a shift where more people who are vaccinated, not many, but more than before are coming through with breakthrough infections and the ones ending up in the hospital tend to be people who had qualified for a booster and didn t get one, and i think it s because of that ambiguity and the confusion. so how did we get to the ambiguity, and then it seems like what dr. fauci was saying