in other words, a vaccine that will make the lining of the lung itself immune to the virus, the lining of the nose immune to the virus, so that a vaccinated person cannot get infected and spread the virus to others. romaine: how far away are we from that? jonathan: we have seen some signs that the vaccine we are working on may, in fact, be able to generate mucosal immunity because it aligns directly with the sells that are attacked by the covid virus, and is inc. in those sells. it is a matter of not only -- antibodies that keep you from getting hospitalized, but looking for ways to make the lining of the nose or the lungs resistant to the virus. taylor: it is interesting. the previous segment before you, with the flu vaccine, we're

always just a step behind the curve, it is a shot in the dark hoping to get the right variant, if you will. what have we learned from that that we can take to covid? is there a way where we won't always be a step behind? jonathan: in the case of flu, you have very different surface antigens on a flu virus. and if we don't get it right, if we do not predict it right, then we are way behind the curve. in the case of covid, you have that same spike protein, and we need to be able to identify and target the immune system against. the problem is as that spike protein mutates, the immune system stops recognizing it. that is why it is important to build vaccines that are able to tolerate these mutations. romaine: what do we learn, longer-term, about not just covid itself, but when you think about how covid came to be, how

it circulated around the world as fast as it did -- have we learned something more broadly here about how to fight infectious diseases? or is this primarily a lesson that can only be applied to the covid-19 and its variants? jonathan: i think we have learned the hard way that a virus that springs up in the most remote corner of the world can travel around the world in a matter of weeks. and if we do not cooperate, if we do not have global surveillance, if we are not prepared to deal with this on a global basis, just closing our borders does not do it. kailey: what will for next time? jonathan: well, what will for next time in the case of covid is broader sensitivity. it really goes back to 2001, for the first experience with sars. it's a matter of recognizing

outbreaks very early, cooperating on building that team very early, and not saying oh well, it does not seem to be coming here, so we don't have to be afraid. in fact, we have to be very afraid. a lot of the vigilance tools that we started assembling back in the early 2000's weren't really in place when this pandemic hit us. and we have realized that we need laboratories around the world that are staffed from year-to-year, not from crisis to crisis. and we need to be ready to respond to a crisis. long before it is a crisis. when it is first recognized. romaine: well said. really appreciate you taking time to give us your insights. dr. jonathan javitt, ceo of nrx pharmaceuticals, trying to find better ways to treat covid patients, particularly those

severely ill. coming up, we're going to talk about omicron and how it is raising the stakes for some vaccine makers. we're going today into the big money tied to these shots, coming up next. ♪

>> we still have some big challenges ahead of us, but if you think back to the uncertainty all of us around the world faced 20 months ago around what we have a vaccine, would we have therapeutics, what would be the path forward, we have certainly made a lot of progress. >> what the data is telling us basically is three doses of the pfizer biontech vaccine will provide for omicron the same

protection like the first two doses provided for the initial strain. taylor: that was of course the ceo's of johnson & johnson and pfizer speaking recently about the progress they have made with vaccines. we are focused on the questions that still remain one year after the u.s. shot was first administered. there was some research released today that showed that pfizer and biontech's vaccine as well as the j&j shot appear to be largely preventing severe disease from omicron. and when it comes down to the company's bottom-line, there are fewer questions about that. but they are also being bolstered by the shots as well. we have gotten a lot of that commentary from some quarterly earnings reports. kailey: we all know these companies have done the world a favor by developing these vaccines at record speed, but they have also reaped large rewards, especially for the makers of mrna vaccines.

tens of billions of dollars not just in 2021, but also anticipated next year. it is a little lower number for other vaccines like astrazeneca and j&j. we're talking more $2 billion for those companies. but this is still a lot of money at stake for these companies. romaine: we should point out there was government involvement in this. taylor: can we get a little political and say that their words -- that there were some overseas doing it on a not-for-profit basis and those efficacy rates were not as high? kailey: i don't know, maybe causation or correlation. romaine: they have done well, at least the major ones. health care reporter joining us now to talk more about this. let's start off with the idea, when these shots first came out there was a lot of talk that this was a one-shot thing, pun intended, and maybe they would be a big windfall. we are now seeing there is a whole business model built around this. is this what these companies are talking about, that there is

basically going to be a covid division of the business for quite some time? >> no doubt. pfizer alone will make more than $36 billion this year on the vaccine. that is almost the flipside of their entire portfolio of products. so this is a real moneymaker. it is something here for the long haul. boosters are no doubt going to continue to bring revenue. and don't forget some of these complete are developing treatments as long as covid is an pandemic form or even endemic form. romaine: $36 billion in one year on that. that is amazing. so they are on track to make $82 billion this year if you believe analyst estimates? riley: exactly. precisely. that is exactly the case. romaine: you don't have to check my math. [laughter] kailey: it does bring up a broader point of how analysts have pivoted. i'm wondering if they have, into looking at these companies is

that recurring revenue versus, as you said, looking at a drug and it is a moneymaker and once the generic expires you are worried about the next one. riley: no doubt. except generic is not coming anytime soon. what we are lookinga t -- looking at is who is going to come out as the market leader. the hope for the one-shot vaccine makers like j&j as you would just get the one and done and people would gravitate towards that. obviously the fs gives -- the efficacy numbers have not been on par. but next year we will know based on the boosters as well. kailey: does the pharmaceutical company have any real bearing on the distribution of these? these are companies making tens of billions of dollars off of these vaccines. sure, the western world has benefited from that, but a lot of the rest of the world has not. is there not a more humanitarian aspect for these companies? riley: that is a fabulous

question and i will start local and then go global. locally, what people do not realize is now that pfizer has full approval, the market dynamics could soon change. right now the government is handling distribution and allocation, but now it has cleared the market, that could become a buyers market. you could see a cvs or a different provider picked up shots and start administering them themselves. but globally, this question is still really government-run, but the money will be in the private market. romaine: on testing, where do we stand with that? there is concern that some of the tests we do now do not detect the new variant. riley: tests right now are not variant-specific. you get a covid positive test and you never learned if you got delta or omicron. nih is working to develop tests that can do that, and that is incredibly important it's can help determine which treatment -- because it can help determine which treatment you get. taylor: bloomberg's health care

reporter riley griffin, appreciate it. final thoughts are next. ♪ ♪

romaine: we decided to do this show because that is the one-year anniversary of the first covid shot vaccine being administered in the u.s. the u.k. beat us to the punch by one week. i think a lot of people thought one year later we would kind of be over this. we're talking about boosters now and maybe even more shots down the road. taylor: it feels crazy that it almost seems there is not an end in sight. we've now got treatments to treat severe disease, but the things that are getting more headlines on more research and, to me, it's mind blowing. kailey: seems like we are moving backwards. to your point about returning to normal, i don't even know what

normal means anymore. romaine: we should point out, the severity of this does not seem to rise to the level of what we saw at the height of the pandemic here. you remember the way hospitals were filling up, they were basically making mobile hospitals to accommodate all of those who were stricken. we're not seeing that yet. still some stress out there, but hopefully we have more of a handle on it. taylor: and there i say more risk-taking, comfortability with it, that has made our behavior different than it was two years ago. kailey: that was final thoughts. romaine: that does it for what'd you miss on this tuesday afternoon. have a great evening. we will be back tomorrow. this is bloomberg. ♪ his is bloomberg. ♪

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>> this is "bloomberg technology ," with emily chang. emily: this is "bloomberg technology," coming up in the next hour, the ceo of uber declares it is now an all weather company that can handle all of the roadblocks coming its way, from omicron to