is within their rights i think the controversial mandates are those on businesses with more than 100 employees you are going the see fault lines forming along that mandate. i don t know how much we are going to pick up for that. that s going to be a brisk debate. there is this discussion about the booster. you are a member of the pfizer board. the cdc director in the booster decision last week drew line between who should get a booster and who can get a booster. what happens if many of them say i am going the hold off for now in how does that complicate the overall fight against the pandemic here? i don t think it does i think the important thing is to get people vaccinated the vaccines have been effective at preventing severe disease and hospitalization and still offering consideration protection against infection as well even though we are seeing a rising number of breakthrough cases mostly mild and asymptomatic infections. the key is to get people who are unvaccinated vaccinated
the challenges still going on even right now in the fight against covid. as president biden is asking those not eligible to get the booster shot to do just that. the cdc s booster decision for pfizer out green lighting boosters for people 65 and up, people with underlying conditions and people in high-risk jobs. that last one s particularly interesting, because that s something advisory panel voted against. the president, president biden, also had to say about people not vaccinated. we still have over 70 million americans who fail to get a single shot. to make matters worse, there are elected officials actively working to undermine with false information the fight against covid-19. this is totally unacceptable. a lot of that false information as you know is spreading online. as nbc news now reports on a dangerous new message making the rounds in anti-vaccine groups.
intransient attitude that has developed in many parts of the country, frankly. and not to mention, we have seen people under threat on their positions because of this. so stephanie, this big meeting, cdc, could shape the rollout of boosters in the coming months. tell us what we re expecting. chris, before i get to that, let me just explain where i am. i m in front of this health center that gives out that does testing as well as gives out vaccines. almost everyone in line here is here for a test. that foot traffic for vaccines has petered out and really trailed off in recent months. and this booster decision by the fda could change that. so you have the cdc meeting on discussing who s at high-risk. right now in this country, the only people who are authorized to get the pfizer booster or any booster for that matter, are people who suffer from immune deficiencies. that could include people with certain diseases, as well as cancer patients. right now, the cdc and fda are discussing
mandates as one of the underpinnings of potential violence again in our country, but there we are. that s 2021 in a nutshell. i m curious as to where you think this booster decision will come down tomorrow and your own opinion on boosters for those who could use them. yeah, brian, so this has actually become one of the most divisive issues they ve had internally in the white house and among the agencies since the pandemic began. who would have expected that? we have actually several different points of view on this and some of it will get resolved when they feet with the fda. some people say it is really important to focus on getting people their first shots before we get the boosters, and second of all, there is the world health organization who is demanding, basically, that the wealthy countries pay attention to the extraordinary needs of many, many countries overseas
a nutshell, i m curious as to where you think this booster decision will come down tomorrow and your own opinion on boosters in those who could use them? brian, this has become one of the most divisive issues they have had internally in the white house, and the agencies among since the pandemic began we have several different points of views about this, and some will get resolved when the council meets with the fda. but here is the essence of, it there are some people who say it is really important to focus on getting people their first shot before we get the boosters, and second of all, there s a world health organization that s demanding that the wealthy countries pay attention to the extraordinary needs of 90 countries overseas that do not even have 2% of their population vaccinated. in the meantime, there are very sears arguments about is there