ashish jha standing by to answer your questions in a moment. we'll ask him about mixing and matching. but first, whit johnson here and what this key cdc panel just decided. >> reporter: tonight, those long awaited recommendations for moderna and johnson & johnson booster shots, along with guidance forxing and matching boters. >> vote number one passes with 15 yeses and 0 nos. >> reporter: for people who got today voting unanimously to oos least six months after vaccination for people over 65 and any adult whose health or work puts them at higher risk. and for the 15 millipients, a sd dose recommended at least two months after vaccination for anyone over 18. the panel also allowing americans to have flexibility to choose a different vra bne nd >> well, i think we've gotten more clarity because it's leveling the playing field across all three vaccines. now there's an openness to boosting no matter what vaccine you got, but there's still some confusion. >> reporter: so many have been looking for guidance on booster shots. >> i would like to talk t

ashish jha, great to see you in person. come back often. >>> we continue with the news this wednesday night and the breaking headline from washington at this hour. democrats and republicans have reached a temporary deal now on the debt ceiling, preventing the u.s. economy from taking that major hit. at least for now. rachel scott on the hill tonight. >> reporter: tonight, senate republicans and democrats striking a temporary deal to prevent the american economy from going over a cliff. >> hopefully republicans will be more reasonable in the next couple months. >> reporter: the nation will default on its loans two weeks from today if congress fails to raise the debt ceiling. it's never happened before. and the potential consequences would be devastating. >> my republican friends need to stop playing russian roulette with the u.s. economy. >> reporter: earlier today, president biden, business laders and top officials sounding the alarm. >> we would likely experience a recession. millions of jobs would be lost. millions of sen

ashish jha. we've never actually met in person after all of these mo months -- nths of your being he. >> this is a big deal for us. it's great to see you. >> this is a big deal for us it's gre we had great happy news.u. we had great happy news. every time we have t every time we have this kind of a moment, we say to ourselves, ? is this finally the end? at this moment, do you think we're kind of on the tail end of this horrible virus? >> we have definitely turned a corner i think the worst is behind us we still have some rocky days ahead. we've got a winter to get through. we got the flu season. but i think the worst is behind us >> that's encouraging. >> it's really wonderful to hear you say that after all we've heard over the months. i had heard another expert talking about how the merck pill which is potentially going to be approved by the fda, and it's a therapy, combined with kids getting vaccinated, those two things that could be potentially weeks away might finally be the thing that breaks

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health.at's your take on the fda advisory committee decision on the johnson & johnson booster? >> thanks for having me back. i think it was clearly the right call. clearly wasn't a close call. 19-0. j&j is a very good vaccine. i also believe it's probably a two-shot vaccine. probably one is not enough. and everybody who has had one needs a second one two months after the first. they are going to get full protection if they do that. >> as you saw, a va study shows a shocking drop in vaccine effectiveness when they looked at veterans who had gotten the johnson & johnson vaccine in march. protection against infection was 88% for the j&j dose. by august it dropped to 3%. do we risk losing lives if the cdc doesn't approve this extra dose immediately? >> no doubt about it, cdc needs to move quickly. still have good protection against hospitalizations and deaths but not enough. so we do need to move quickly on that second shot. that drop is a combination of waning immunity and the delta variant give

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. dr. jha, thanks for joining us. week from today, parents understandably still have a lot of questions. some parents are concerned about the size of pfizer's vaccine trial. there were 2,268 participants ages 5 to 11. is that enough data to demonstrate safety? >> good evening, wolf. thanks for having me here. that is very good amount of data but also we have to remember in a broader context. there have been 15 million kids ages 12 to 17 who have also gotten the vaccine. and while that's a slightly different group, their experience matters a lot as well. so we know a lot about these vaccines. they are the most tested and most carefully examined vaccines in the history of humanity. i think the 2,000 on the 5 to 11-year-olds really adds a lot to that and gives me confidence as a dad of a 9-year-old that these vaccines are quite safe and very effective. >> many adults experienced the mild side effects after vaccination, including fever, body aches or sore arm. do families need to be prepared for the kids 5 to 11 to experi

ashish jha, the dean of the brown university school of public health.on on what we heard from the cdc director dr. rochelle walensky earlier today. >> if you are eligible for a boost and you're pregnant, you should also get your boost during that period of time and i would say for nursing as well. >> would you also encourage pregnant women to get a booster? >> yeah, jaike. absolutely. pregnant women are at high risk of bad complications of covid. it's very dangerous in pregnancy. i agree with the cdc director. if you're pregnant and have been vaccinated, good time to get a boost if you're six months out from your second shot. >> pfizer has data showing its smaller dose vaccine, about one-third of the size of the vaccine, for kids is nearly 91% effective in preventing the kids from getting any sort of symptomatic covid infection. put that in perspective for us. how promising might this be for ending the pandemic? >> two things on this. first of all, it's phenomenal. a high level of efficacy. this is the kind of stuff we saw early days of pfizer before th

ashish jha, good to see you. what do you think of these proposed changes in who should be taking an aspirin every day as a preventive measure? they're saying if you're over 60, if you've had a history of a stroke or heart attack take the aspirin but don't just take it preventively if you haven't. >> thanks for having me back. i think back to medical school when i first learned about prevention of heart attacks and strokes with aspirin. it became dogma but over the last 20 years the evidence has accumulated that for a lot of people the risks clearly outweigh the benefits. and so elizabeth's report really got it right. basically if you've had a heart attack or stroke, continue it. obviously, work with your doctor. if you have not, the evidence at this point for most people is that it's probably not worth it. the costs probably outweigh the benefits. consult with your doctor but don't just automatically start an aspirin. >> this recommendation for low-dose aspirin every day has been standard medical advice for years

ashish jha, dean of brown university school of public health. dr.r joining us as always. you've been predicting that most americans will end up getting a booster shot. but by early next year. so could this mixing and matching of the vaccine speed up that timeline big time? >> good morning. thank you for having me back. yeah, first and foremost, i think people who are older, people who are chronically ill, they need a booster. and whether you got a moderna, pfizer, j&j, doesn't matter, you need a booster and you should get one. the mixing and matching thing says it doesn't matter which booster you get. if you have the moderna shot before, you can get another mod moderna, pfizer. it is fine. i do think this will speed this up. high risk people should be getting boosters now. i expect lower risk people to be getting a booster maybe later this year or early next year. >> the new york times reporting that an nih study presented last week to the fda's advisory panel suggested that johnson & johnson recipients might be the ones who benefit the most from th

ashish jha and dr. celine gounder, always good to see you both. you very much. >> woodruff: the treasury department said today that u.s. companies are paying $102 million in ransomware payments every month. the white house this week convened leaders from 30 countries to coordinate efforts against what has become a growing, global problem. nick schifrin has that story. >> schifrin: just in the past six months, ransomware hackers debilitated one of the u.s.' largest meat producers, and a crucial pipeline. they disrupted ireland's national health system. and, they are currently wreaking havoc in an israeli hospital system, which had to cancel all non-emergency procedures. at this week's virtual conference, the countries pledged to improve cooperation in law enforcement; inhibit, trace, and interdict ransomware payments; and harden infrastructure. anne neuberger is the deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology. she organized the conference. and she joins me now. anne neuberger, welcome to the "newshour". so talk about this con

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. dr. jha, always great to have you here. you know, it seems this blueprint for the moderna boosters today recommended by this panel, very similar to what we saw with the pfizer boosters. 65 and older first, along with 18 and older if you have a health condition or a job that puts you at higher risk. one thing i thought was interesting, though, today, moderna's booster will be given as a half dose, 50 micrograms. that's compared to 100 micrograms in their first two shots. so, why a half shot when we were getting a full shot of pfizer for a booster? was moderna a more powerful shot to begin with? >> yeah, so, david, thank you for having me back. first of all, they absolutely follow the same blueprint, same groups of individuals, high risk people getting the booster. and the half dose is because, in fact, the original dose of moderna is more powerful than the original dose of pfizer, so the evidence says you really only need a half dose to get the benefits of the booster. >> what the data show

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health, is back with us tonight. and dr. jha, you heard our reporting there, steve reporting on that study, about one-third of parents say they're ready to vaccinate their children right away. the rest say maybe not right away. we always know that when the fda panel comes out in favor that likely helps those numbers. we also know that you're a dad and a doctor, how comfortable are you with vaccinated your youngest child? help our viewers through this. >> yeah, good evening, david. thanks for having me back. i am very comfortable. i've examined the data. i think the evidence here is overwhelmingly clear. my 9-year-old is going to benefit from this vaccine. it's going to protect him, it's going to protect his family. i think that is clearly the right thing to do at this moment. >> and dr. jha, i know part of the interest in getting children vaccinated is not just to protect them from depth and hospitalization like we've heard every step of the way here, but also against these long-term effects, because we still don't know very

ashish jha joining us here in person, which is always -- i would like to think, a sign we're moving forward in this pandemic. great to have you. people have be asking about this, you heard dr. walensky say today that last year, we all had masks, social distancing. flu season was not that bad. she said it could be difficult moving forward. >> yeah, so, good evening, david. thank you for having me here. i'm worried about the flu season this year. for all of those reasons. and many people did not get the flu shot last year i'm worried about lack of immunity. it's absolutely critical that people get the flu vaccine this year. >> what about this question, dr. jha about the covid vaccine, so many people have gotten vaccinated and now getting a flu shot, will there be any different side effects? >> there shouldn't be. there's very good data you can get them together, on the same day, you can space them out. there really is not a problem between getting both of those vaccines. >> and again, her concern is that so few of us were exposed to flu last year, that that's why we have to be extra careful g

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. coming to us tonight from california. always great to have you. the fact that merck would stop this trial early after finding the pill, they say, cut hospitalizations and deaths in half, if this science holds up on this, this could be significant. >> good evening, david. thanks for having me back. absolutely. this is enormously important. you know, we've all been waiting for an oral pill that could reduce the severity of this illness. this might be it. we'll see what the full data looks like, but it's going to be an important tool in the fight against the pandemic. >> you know there are already concerns from some who fear that people will hear about this potential pill coming and ask, why get the vaccine if the pill will cut severity in half? >> yeah, you know, look, the pill is important, but vaccines cut vaccinations by more than 95%. vaccines prevent the spread of the virus. vaccines are a whole different set of preventive therapies. it's much, much better than the pill, but the pi

ashish jha serves as dean as the brown university school of health.d be getting the shot and when? >> good morning, thanks for having me here. yes, this is a very tiny portion of people who are very profoundly immunocompromised. the vaccine doesn't work super well for them and they may be people who need vaccines on an ongoing basis for a long period of time. again, obviously if you are on medicines that compromise your system, chemotherapy, cancer, talk to your doctor about it. this is a tiny group of americans. >> so is this the beginning of something that will eventually trickle down to everybody, are you saying this is the first kind of salvo in getting a fourth shot or more for everybody else? >> you know, the way i look at it is, i've probably gotten 20 flu shots in my life, i get one every year. could we imagine we get to a point a fourth or a fifth over the next several years, sure. this could be an annual booster for a while. i don't think people are going to need it every six months for a long period of time. all the evidence right now sugge

ashish jha. always great to have you with us. when i heard this that the white house was putting it out it signaled two things. they're starting a full court press ahead of that meeting for potential eua recommendation and the fact that they are driving home this point that they are targeting 25,000 doctor office community health centers. this is all about making parents more comfortable and putting it in a setting that they know. >> yeah, good morning. thank you for having me back. there are several things going on here. one is just the logistical stuff. these are different doses than the ones for adults. what we don't want to do, what happened with the trump administration is there was no plan for implementation. we don't want to do that. we want a plan ready for implem implementation, so the day after the cdc signs off on it, kids can start to get vaccinated. a lot of parents are extra careful about their children and want to turn to their trusted voices, pediatricians among them. the white house is working with pediatricians

ashish jha on the "today" show and get your thoughts. take a look at this. >> in the next few weeks we'll hear the fda authorize johnson & johnson. i think they'll authorize moderna. >> for booster shots. >> booster shots, absolutely. kids will get authorized for vaccines. and then the pill. boy, we go into thanksgiving and the holidays with a whole new set of tools, it's really going to be helpful. that's what makes me optimistic that we'll have a better holiday season. >> do you share his optimism? do you think the worst is behind us? >> well, you know, i share his optimism in the sense that it is exciting that we'll have these new tools. and with each of these new interventions, we come one step closer to getting ourselves out of this epidemic. you know, i think the biggest problem is compliance and acceptance of these new technologies, and that's where we see this pretty high level of resistance, refusal, in regional areas of the country. so things are going to look very different in the northeast and the west coast than they will up

ashish jha from the brown university school of public health. thank you so much for joining us.d hospitalizations and deaths are all trending down a bit here in the united states. are we potentially turning a corner? >> yeah, thank you wolf for having me back. i think we are. i think we are. about three or four weeks ago we saw the surge of cases peak. especially in the south. they have come down substantially. we've seen a few states still increasing but mostly not at the levels that we saw and now deaths are turning down. exactly as we expect. i'm hoping this is the very worst behind us. obviously winter ahead, so we still have some bumps ahead. but i think the worst days of this pandemic should be behind us. >> these trends certainly are heading in the right direction now. but are you concerned that fall and winter potentially will bring new challenges and potentially new surges? >> i am. i am. look, the thing is that even though we are doing reasonably well on vaccines, we have to do much better because the delta variant is very good at finding people who are unvaccinated an

ashish jha, the dean of brown university school of public health. thank you so much for joining us. these major covid metrics here in the u.s. seem to be heading in the right direction. are you optimistic that things really are getting better, that we won't see another major surge as the weather gets colder? >> wolf, thanks for having me back. i think we are clearly seeing declining metrics and thank goodness. i think it's driven in large part by the horrible surge that we saw across the south really turn around. there's still parts of the country that concern me as we get into the winter months. certainly the upper midwest, great plains states have low vaccination rates. i think those are troubling. here in new england, i'm hoping we'll do okay because we have much higher vaccination rates but nobody is completely out of the woods yet. we still have more work to do. >> vaccinations here in the u.s., they are on the rise but that's primarily being driven by people getting their booster doses, not necessarily their first or second dose. are you worried, dr. jha, that the americans wh

ashish jha, was on the "today" show where he addressed where he thinks we are in the pandemic.have definitely turned a corner. i think the worst is behind us. we have lucky days ahead. i don't think we're out of this. a winter, flu season but i think the worst is behind us. >> i like that, jose. i would love to say for a couple of things. the reason i think he can say that with security is that we're seeing hospitalizations decline, usually the first sign that we're in kind of this phase where our surge is declining. if you're in alaska, idaho, some parts of our country, parts of the northeast this is exploding. keeping a close eye on michigan, an uptick in cases in parts of the state. the worst is behind us. i'm optimistic what is to come if we can continue to get people vaccinated. health care workers are breathing a sigh of relief but not everywhere in the country. >> also a major development in the efforts to fight another global health threat on wednesday, the world health organization recommend the first malaria vaccine should be given to children across africa. how signi

ashish jha told hoda and savannah he would like to see one. >> there's still a lot of unvaccinated peoplet back to normal it's going to make a big difference. >> reporter: industry experts say travelers need to be flexible about their dates and destinations this year book rental cars now and be prepared for crowds. >> so besides being flexible, what are some other tips people should keep in mind while they're booking their holiday travel >> reporter: first of all, savannah, you want to check those refund policies on your hotels and your airfares you want to look for the customer-friendly ones and avoid nonrefundable tickets. also consider getting cancel my travel for any reason insurance. and then here's something that's really kind of counterintuitive. consider traveling internationally during thanksgiving week, because that's when those planes are much less crowded and fares could go down because the rest of us are all thinking about traveling domestically but of course you have to keep in mind the vaccination and covid restrictions when you travel abroad. >> interesting thought don't g

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. dr. jha, thanks for joining us.alk about this fda meting on boosters, moderna and johnson & johnson. should we expect they'll be approved? >> yeah, good morning, george. thanks. i do. the data on johnson & johnson is overwhelmingly clear. little less clear on whether you need the moderna booster but i think overall it leans that way and i expect both of them to get authorized. >> what do you make of this idea of mixing of boosters? if you got the j&j first, you can get the moderna or pfizer booster? >> it makes a lot of sense. we have that new data out mentioned in the last report. i don't think it's a big deal if you got a moderna or pfizer to mix it. it's clearly safe and probably is not much more beneficial. where there appears benefit is adding a moderna or pfizer to a j&j vaccine. preliminary data, but there is some evidence tat may be better off. >> should make it easier to distribute, right? >> yeah, i mean, we've got right now plenty of all of these vaccines and so really at this point, any booster is going