advisory committee. also author of the new book, you bet your life. from blood transfusions to mass vac vaccination, the long and risky history. i know you and your fellow fda advisers voted unanimously to approve moderna boosters for certain people. was this an easy decision based on the data you reviewed? i would say yes. it was an easy decision and that s why it was unanimous. so the people who had gotten two doses of moderna s vaccine, which was 100 micrograms, are recommended to receive under certain circumstances, a 50 microgram dose at least six months after that second dose. but it s interesting what nick was talking about how there was concerns about sort of making this a universal recommendation. meaning a booster dose as a universal recommendation for everybody over 18. i think the reason for that is we have to define what s the goal of this vaccine.
offit, a member of the fda s advisory committee and the author of you bet your life: from blood transfusions to mass vaccinations, the long and risky history of medical innovation. thanks so much and thanks for writing this book as well, very informative. last month saw the highest number of covid deaths from pregnant women. can you explain why the benefits of this shot outweigh potential risks? it s interesting the way this played out. what happened was when pfizer and moderna did their phase 3 trials, they didn t include pregnant women in those trials. typically the cdc will say contraindicated for use in pregnant women because we have no data. but even then the cdc new pregnant women had more risk of severe infection which could cause ventilation and death from covid. so they said pregnant women
43,000 employees in all. and as of this morning, 5,000 of them have not gotten the shot. jake? cnn s nick watt, thank you. let s bring in dr. paul offit, a member of the fda vaccine advisory and the author of you bet your life, the long and risky history of medical innovation. congrats on the new book. we saw 78-year-old president biden get his booster shot live on tv this afternoon. is it important for the american public to see the president get his third dose? in a more rational world, yes. people would see him getting the vaccine and realize that he s of an age where he clearly would benefit because as you get older your immune system becomes less vigorous. it s in the same category as those who are immune compromised for whom there s already a recommendation. it s remarkable to me that we have that you have that story about having to mandate vaccines
that what i m hearing? i m saying the data we have for the general public, whether it s pfizer or moderna appears to provide excellent provides serious illness, including delta variant, and there s not a problem in terms of serious diseases, the issue is over time, with these kinds of vaccines, the new neutralizing antibodies, you ll have symptomatic infection during which time you can be contagious, the thinking was okay. if we get a third, we can decrease contagions and get an impact on the pandemic. sanjay brought it up, what kind of impact will it have as compared to what we need to do, which is vaccinated unvaccinated. good point, congratulations on your new book you bet your life, i have it right here. sanjay as usual, i know you have
tens of millions of americans overnight. including ages 65 and older and with high risk of exposure and severe illness. this health care workers, schoolteachers, grocery store employees. fda says it s third pfizer dose must come at least six months after the second. but the cdc will have the final say on who qualifies for the extra shot. nbc news senior medical correspondent dr. john torres is with me now and joined by dr. paul offit, a member of the fda advisory committee and author of new book you bet your life: from blood transfusions to . dr. torres, start with you. what s taking place at the cdc and the timeline, if they go along with the fda on those boosters shots? it s like you mentioned, lindsey. as we sit here they re looking at the information from the pfizer anded fda and deciding what to recommend as far as