sales, it is giving tuesday. how you can give back this holiday season. this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening. discouraging words tonight from the head of vaccine maker moderna, quoted as saying there could be a material drop in the effectiveness of current vaccines against the omicron variant. while late today pfizer filed for approval of booster shots for 16 and 17-year-olds, hoping to protect as many people as possible scientists are feverishly trying to understand the heavily mutated variant, now tracing its origins to a different and earlier path than first thought, as new worldwide recommendations are issued for certain travelers. some of the critical answers about the variant are still perhaps weeks away but there could soon be a new tool in the fight against covid, an antiviral pill from merck moving closer to approval tonight gabe gutierrez leads our coverage
monoclonal antibody treatment may not work as well on omicron as it does on other strains. we ve started with very potent antibodies we have to look at how much the hit is, but more importantly we have to get ready for the next one. reporter: moderna s ceo warned today he expects a material drop in existing vaccines protection against omicron. while late today, pfizer applied for the first emergency use authorization of covid boosters for 16 and 17-year-olds there s no timeline on when the fda could act. also late today, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction halting the start of president biden s national vaccine mandate for health care workers which was set to take effect next week, lester. gabe, back to merck s pill that an fda advisory panel recommended for approval, what happens now? reporter: well, lester, it now will go before the full fda in the coming days. now, the advisory panel s vote was very close, 13 to 10, and many of the panelists said they only wante
as americans prepare for the holidays. i would not change any plans, but that doesn t mean you should be cavalier about it. reporter: stocks tumbled again. the dow dropping more than 650 points. the recent rise in covid-19 cases and the emergence of the omicron variant pose downside risks to the employment and economic activity and increased uncertainty for inflation. reporter: concerns are growing about the effectiveness of therapies and vaccines against the variant. regeneron says its monoclonal antibody treatment may not work as well on omicron as it does on other strains. we started with potent antibodies. we have to look at how much the hit is. more importantly, we have to get ready for the next one. reporter: moderna s ceo warns he expects a material drop in existing vaccines protection against omicron. pfizer applied for the first emergency use authorization of covid boosters for 16 and 17-year-olds. there s no timeline on when the fda could act. let s bring in wh
time to get vaccinated. we also know that vaccination helps protect you, your loved ones and your community from covid-19, and we fully anticipate this protection at least in part will be beneficial against omicron. meanwhile, here is some of that uncertainty i was talking about. fed chair jerome powell was on capitol hill today testifying about a heavy dose of economic uncertainty facing the country with omicron. moderna s ceo talked to the financial times about vaccine uncertainty, predicting that there will be a, quote, material drop in vaccine effectiveness. the question is how much. nevertheless, medical experts agree that the best way to go ahead to get ahead of omicron right now or any of the variants is getting every person possible vaccinated and/or boosted which puts white house messaging in the spotlight. ron klain responded on twitter to nbc s first read, disputing the notion that the white house was losing the messaging war on the vaccine mandate. even though less than
welcome back. experts have been saying it s going to take a few weeks and maybe even more than that until we know exactly how well our current covid vaccines will hold up against this new omicron variant. as we said at the top of the show, moderna s ceo certainly didn t calm anyone s nerves telling the financial times, quote, there is no world, i think, where the vaccine effectively is the same level. i think it s going to be a material drop. i just don t know how much because we need to wait for the data. but all the scientists i ve talked to are like this is not going to be good. let s get right to our go-to guy when it comes to vaccines, dr. peter hotez, the director of the center for vaccine department at texas children s hospital and one of the foremost experts on vaccine effectiveness. dr. hotez, do you have the same sort of grim outlook that