merck's was given within five days of symptom onset.the benefit was 76%. so the ceo calling this a potential game changer in this global effort to halt the devastation of the pandemic. he said the drug has the potential to save patient's lives reduce the severity of infections and eliminate severe infections merck was just approved in the uk we have the ceo of pfizer joining us in the next hour. guys >> we'd be remiss if we didn't put up an ntraday chart of merck. seems like a no brainer. so let's put it up and i guarantee you find -- >> pfizer is up 6% this morning. >> merck is down 3 >> quite a move. >> yeah and that is related. i have a couple of questions so that's better efficacy. does it work the same way? i think the merck drug is a -- isn't it a nuke low side analog, disrupts the replication but there were questions about it, and the uk did it quickly, even with some of the concerns. any similar concerns here with the pfizer drug, meg >> so pfizer's drug is a different mechanism. pfizer says they have not seen that risk in anima

the drug company merck a company weeks ago with its anti viral pill. real promise for people who got that treatment in time soon after infection, the merck antiviral pill for -- in hospitalization and. that the fda is looking at that. now the uk has already approved it. but now this new candidate has come along which is what president biden was bragging about today. it's a new drug, this one from pfizer, and this one shows almost 90% effectiveness, at least in this key clinical trial that they have just released the data. from a brought down the chances of being hospitalized or killed by the sting by 89%. now, the devils in the details, of course. you have to get it quickly. the 89% reduction is for people who are at high risk of severe covid. a lot more data has to be released, it hasn't been peer reviewed data yet. but, the devils of the detail. the details in these ones are fascinating. and the early indications here are that this is really really good news, honestly. joining us now is doctor vin gupta, critical care pulmonologist, he is at the inst

john. >> the merck and pfizer pills work in very different ways. we will hear about merck first. has to say about scottie pippin's attacks on michael jordan. >>> and what to do with unruly passengers on planes. ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the d dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ ♪ say it's all right ♪ ♪ say it's all right, it's all right ♪ ♪ have a good time 'cause it's l right ♪ ♪ now lisn to the beat ♪ ♪ kinda pat your feet ♪ ♪ it's all right ♪ ♪ have a good time 'cause it's all right ♪ ♪ oh, it's all right ♪ [energetic music throughout] what's strong with me? i know when i'm ready to run. what's strong with me? i can find strength in a rest day. what's strong with me? there are some nights i sleep so well... i'm ready for anything. find out what's strong with you with daily readiness on fitbit. this is the tempur-pedic® breeze° and its mission is to make sleep...feel cool. so, no more night sweats. no more nocturnal baking. or polar ice cap air-conditioner mode. because the tempur-pedic

89% versus roughly 50% reduction in hospitalization and death from merck's product.efinitely has big sales potential. >> they are taking the information to the fda and then after that to the cdc. quickly, when could the earliest administration this drug begin >> it could be sooner than we anticipate there is an advisory meeting on november 30th for merck's pill i assume pfizer's will be tacked onto that given what we have seen today but there is no reason they have to wait for that advisory committee for the fda to approve that that happened with antibodies. there was no ad combefore the antibodies were approved because the safety and efficacy was so very clean. >> could this supplant the vaccine? where does this leave you for 2022 >> i think 2022 is going to be a robust year in terms of vaccine sales. but this definitely adds a lot of upside. we will see tens of billions of dollars from their covid-19 franchise which i think people didn't fully expect. 2022 for vaccine sales, i think a lot of that is this the bag because their already have contracts doses. they coul

to p that will need more confirmation finally, antiviral drugs going through the fda process from merck and pfizer, the fda suggesting it looks like it will clear the drug and needs input how widely to clear it, for which groups these antivirals are not thought effective by variants, but still need more data on that as well it is really early days now. there's concern, but we need more information guys >> yeah. you bring up the oral antivirals, it does seem to indicate how important they conceivably will be when they get to market, which we hope or many do perhaps by end of the year merck would get emergency approval. >> yeah, with the advisory committee meeting next week on tuesday, we expect them to vote on it. we have to see how quickly the fda will act after getting that recommendation to issue emergency use authorization. we expect pfizer is likely a few weeks behind given timing of the data, a month later than merck's data should see them work their way through. and it is up to identify covid cases and get drugs to the right patients to allow them to make a big difference. >> and

merck with their anti-viral pill set a good example last week. they took it to the medicines patent pool at the u.n. and made a deal to let countries all over the world, factories all of the world start making their anti-viral pill including africa, asia, other places where particularly poor populations would otherwise have a hard time competing for and affording a western-manufactured drug. merck tack unprecedented steps lack week to make sure its anti-viral pill keeps people alive. they took unprecedented steps last week to make sure it was going to be made available for real all over the world. pfizer is going to have to do something like that with this drug as well. if this all turns out to be as good as it looks, they're going to have to follow that same path. there is something that will have that same effect. this isn't a cure. that's not how diseases like this work, apparently. look what we've we've got. we've got ways to stop most people from getting this disease and to stop people from getting super sick and dying if they do get it i me

you want to look at a pfizer, a merck, an eli lilly.d to buy and take advantage of a black friday discount in the stockmarket. i'm going to look at the exchanges. whether it's the nasdaq, interactive brokers or charles schwab i said volatility will increase over the coming weeks. those three will be beneficiaries of that. so one of those names, i'll begin a small purchase in that financial services, one of those financial services companies today. so i think that itself the right way to approach it again, it goes back to risk. becky, i think that overall, we extended the leverage, our risk assumption really was something that was beyond where the comfort levels should be in the wake of the s&p earnings in october. it's a repricing now. >> joe, i can understand your hesitancy when you look at some of the reopening stocks that are move sock drastically today, maybe not being able to jump with some of the travel stocks, you don't know what the outlook s. don't you look at the financials, j.p. morgan stack, goldman sachs, those are big move

this is a new drug from pfizer, a couple of weeks ago you'll remember merck went to the fda to try totment, its new anti viral pill, the data on the mark pill, frankly, looked great, it reduces hospitalization and death by 50%. but this other one that we just got the new data on from pfizer, it's not 50% effective, it's nearly 90% effective. that is potentially huge. a lot of people today observing this news call it a potential game-changer in terms of the pandemic, the people who have the broaddus horizons, the long term vision on this pandemic from the beginning have just been rejoicing today at this news. i mean, you put this into the broader picture, between the vaccination rates ticking, up and up, slowly, but still taking up an up, with the vaccine requirements, more and more of them going into effect all over the country which will bring the vaccination rates up higher, with kids ages five and up being approved for vaccines, that will bring the overall vaccination rates up even higher. and now, coming down the pike, real treatment options that can keep people from being hospita

pharmaceutical giant merck rose around 2% after u.k. regulators approved a pill that could treat covid-19 symptoms. in clinical trials, the drug, which was originally developed to treat the flu, cut the risk of hospitalization or death by around half. the u.k. health secretary described the treatment as potential game changer. u.s. authorities are to evaluate it this week. finally, the incoming mayor of new york city will take his first three paychecks in bitcoin. eric adams, who was elected tuesday, said he was hoping to make the city the center of the cryptocurrency industry. he is also considering launching an n.y.c. version of cryptocurrencies as miami, florida, has already done. miami's mayor has said he will take all of his salary for his coming term in bitcoin. crypto startups have been flocking there. the process of bitcoin mining is far from environmentally friendly, not to mention the risk of volatility. we see prices fluctuating by tens of thousands of dollars in a single day. >> not sure i'm quite ready for it myself. thank

. >> a fda advisory panel is meeting to discuss merck's covid pill to fight the virus. meg tirrell has the latest on that and how the rest are faring today. >> so that panel going on right now we are expecting a vote from them on whether to recommend merck for emergency use authorization perhaps at the end of the 4:00 hour and right now the discussion is centering on the appropriate patient populations with pregnant women and whether it's recommended for them or made available to them there are some concerns in the safety in that population and will discuss any kind of risk management strategies that might be needed to monitor the drug on the market because there are some safety questions about it also, of course, the update last week from merck that the efficacy suspected look as strong as in the interim look. we're seeing interesting names in the board with the vaccine names and reversing the moves we saw yesterday and seeing moderna give back some big gains from yesterday. biontech in a similar position pfizer essentially flat. novavax is up after dropping yesterday.

keytruda from merck. ask your doctor about keytruda. the new sensodyne repair and protect with deep repair has the science to show that the toothpaste goes deep inside the exposed dentin to help repair sensitive teeth. my patients are able to have that quality of life back. i recommend sensodyne repair and protect with deep repair.

this is from merck. the studies show the merck pill reduced hospital situations and deaths by half. amongst recently infected people and that pill has been approved for people with at least one risk factor for covid and including being over 60 years old, being obese or having heart disease. >> to have a drug like this and an antiviral that is potent and able to be taken orally is an important moment and marks a milestone. >> it's set for review in the u.s. later this month. the pfizer pill needs to be submitted for authorization. health officials warn that none of the treatments is a substitute forgetting the vaccine. >>> and the city of oroville is getting tang after saying it would not follow orders issued by the governor or president. in a 6-1 vote this week, the city councilicalled oroville the constitutional city. it stems over the controversy of closing businesses during the pandemic and mask and mandates. does the city have a right to ignore state and federal orders? >> ultimately, this would be determined by a court. the strong presumption would be that the city of oroville

merck has one of these antiviral pills, pfizer has one of them, too. the merck clinical results looked really good in terms of people being kept alive, getting out of the hospital if they could get that drug soon after being diagnosed with covid. the merck results were good, but the pfizer clinical trial results looked even better. the pfizer clinical trial results showed nearly 90% efficacy at keeping people out of the hospital and alive if they could get this drug, this new pfizer antiviral drug, again, that you take as a pill soon after contracting covid. again, pfizer has just put in to the fda to have that treatment authorized for use in the united states. merck's application for its antiviral treatment is already being processed at the fda. that's all good, having a whole new armamentarium of clinically proven effective drugs to treat covid. that is a big deal, a really big advance in terms of the fight against this pandemic. we also have monoclonal antibodies, and if you can get those monoclonal antibodies in time to people, they, too, show effe

merck has also applied for emergency use authorization.meeting on november 30th. we don't know when that meeting would be for pfizer. they work in different ways. they both stop the virus from replicating. as with the vaccines, the u.s. government already announced if these pills get the green light, and that's and if, if these pills get the green light from the fda and the cdc, that they will be making purchases. so let's take a look. the federal government has said for merck that they will purchase 1.7 million courses and for pfizer that will be 10 million doses and we're expecting that drug will be free to americans given that's what happened with the vaccines and with other drugs. jim, erica? >> elizabeth cohen, great to see you this morning. thank you. >>> navy sailors denied an exemption from the covid vaccine now have five days to begin that vaccination process or the pentagon says they could be discharged. >> the navy is not messing around here. we should note 99.5% of the 350,000 active duty sailors have already gotten at least on

that was down a bit because the update from merck preventing se severe disease and death was lower than expected with the i want rim look and down 30% in preventing that more severe disease, compared to 46% in the interim. the fda looking like it would clear it and asking its advisers to weigh the appropriate patient populations. guys, back to you. >> virologist was sounding the alarm and we saw the markets open up in asia and what is the level of preparedness and the u.s. government? >> we have not restricted travel from south africa. i saw a flight land in atlanta from johannesburg at 9:15 a.m. do we know what the white house is doing we have been warned that a new variant could come to evade the vaccines >> that's the big concern. does this get around the vaccines i ashish jha was just on in the last hour saying it could very well be here already in terms of delaying flights, there are calls for the u.s. to do what the uk is doing in stopping flights from certain african countries. dr. jha said that could delay it here by a week or two. these things are always too late to make a big

i think it's going to be great to have both the merck and pfizer available. they have shown some benefit. one better than the other. at least from what we can tell from press releases, but this is really only used, going to be used when a vaccination has either not been taken, in most situations, or someone has breakthrough. that's not going to be the best way to go. >> so the takeaway remains whats has been so many months. get your first shot. get your second shot. get your third shot, if it's time. we know how to end this folks. get your shot. dr. davidson and dr. hardy thank you both for coming on. good luck over the next week especially dr. davidson in michigan with the work ahead of you. >>> up next, new efforts by the white house to get the economy back on track and surging inflation. >>> later, an update from waukesha, wisconsin. you're watching "meet the press" daily. re watching "meet the pr" daily. as someone who resembles someone else, i appreciate that liberty mutual knows everyone's unique. that's why they customize your car insurance, so you onl

and this one showing potentially a lot more promise and notoriety than merck's pill. we're going to be talking to the ceo of pfizer on the significance of this statement. the stock is racing ahead right now on the belief that this is a game-changer. as one former fda official put it, this just might mean the end of covid as we know it. those are high expectations. we'll get into all of that with him shortly. in the meantime the, getting into the latest on the battle over, well, different spending plans in washington. chad pergram on where we stand now. chad, i think they want to get all of this done by the end of today. that seems like a big leap. what's the latest? >> reporter: it's hard to say. house speaker nancy pelosi has huddled with individual members. she does not have the votes yet. democrats updated the text of their big bill at a contentious witching hour meeting of the house rules committee. >> so i just, so nobody will tell me. literally, they won't deme how much this bill spends -- tell me how much this bill spends. >> under $2 trillion. >> under 2 trill

both merck and pfizer's drugs prevented all deaths and while merck's reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 50% overall, pfizer's lowered the risk by 89%. >> this is a fantastic demonstration of the power of science. i think this medicine will change the way things are happening right now. >> now, pfizer is scaling up manufacturing and expects to produce 50 million treatment courses next year. it's ceo tells us the company is in discussions with 90 governments around the world and the pricing structure could be similar to merck's drug. pfizer says it plans to charge lower income countries less. so what does this mean for the vaccine? it's not a replacement says pfizer's ceo. >> the fact that we have a treatment is not at all a reason not to take the vaccine. in fact, we should take the vaccine. this is for sick people. if the goal here is to prevent people from getting sick. >> a perspective echoed by many in public health while the initial authorizations of these drugs are likely to be just for people at high risk of bad outcomes, pfizer is running additional studies in everyb

britain became the first country to approve a different covid bill developed by merck. the drug should be used as soon as possible following a positive covid-19 test and within five days of symptoms. this is not in place of the vaccine. >> it's extremely promising. it will be a game changer. there's significance in terms of preventing hospitalization and terms of how it will be used. it will be used in very early disease. you need to be in a hospital to get it. you can get this prescribed. go to walgreens or cvs, take it. it's being studied as prevention. people have been exposed in other settings like nursing homes. >> the idea is not only used for early treatment like in the study we talked about but used for exposure. i think using it in both those ways is really going to change the way we deal with outbreaks and contract tracing, et cetera. >> in many ways is this similar in the science to something like tamaflu is also what we take when we get sick to prevent you from getting worse? >> exactly. it's going to be the covid version of tamaflu. >> do you expect to see

the same is the case here with the merck abc and pfizer drug.y soon after infection. your best prevention remains vaccination, vaccination, vaccination. >> this week you signed a letter with 500 other health care professionals asking facebook to disclose data about covid misinformation, and it reads in part, facebook must take immediate urgent action to stop the deadly spread of coronavirus disinformation on its platforms, facebook must disclose all data about the scope, reach and content of this disinformation and its impact on users for evalue igs by independent public health researchers. why was this important for you to sign on to and has there been a response? >> look, doctors think in terms of diagnosis and treatment. you cannot come up way treatment if you don't have the diagnosis. when companies operate with transparency, society will hold them accountable. they choose not to operate with transparency to operate in the shadows when they don't want to be held accountable. people like me who, doctors, nurses, public health workers, who hav

and it's important to understand the mechanism and action of paxlovid is different from that of the merckey have in common is they are only effective if they are given early in the treatment of the course of the disease, the numbers for the pfizer's drug paxlovid is impressive, 85% effective in terms of preventing hospitalisation or death but that's only if given within three days of developing symptoms, so we need to be fussed about diagnosing and starting people on treatment for these drugs to have an impact. for these drugs to have an im act. �* . ~ for these drugs to have an imact. �* ., ~ ., impact. and what kind of patients _ impact. and what kind of patients are _ impact. and what kind of patients are going - impact. and what kind of patients are going to - impact. and what kind of. patients are going to benefit from this drug was to mark in the studies, but the study of the studies, but the study of the pfizer drug paxlovid as well as merck's molnupiravir, they focused on people who are at high risk for developing severe covid, so maybe they were obese or had diabetes or other chr

second largest holding is merck. today because those shares are falling after citi downgraded the stock and the hiv drug will hurt merck's long-term potential. a note that's not related to covid-19 stock is now negative on the year down 4% right now. >> dow gain down to 45 points. a news update. rahel solomon has that >> hi, carl, good morning. here's what's happening at this hour negotiations over iran's nuclear program have resumed officials from the remaining participants in a 2015 arrived at a hotel in vienna, russia, france, and the uk in 2018 then president trump took the u.s. out of the deal. iran responded by ri assuming its uranium enrichment prompting economic sanctions and iran will not return unless sanctions are lifted jussie smollett's trial begins today. the actor who starred in "empire" told police he was the victim of a hate crime he's now accused of staging the whole thing, which he denies >>> today a jury has been seated and opening arguments will begin in the trial of ghislaine maxwell, accused of

this is similar to what we saw from merck, merck applied for emergency use authorization for its pillwould essentially work in the same way. uk regulators approved that yesterday. when we look at how this would be used, is it i go, i get tested, i'm positive, and then the doctor would prescribe a pill to me and that's what would prevent severe infection or more tailored depending on whether or not i had underlying conditions? do we know yet? >> we don't know. who was enrolled in clinical trials was people with high progression. if it prevents transmission, it may be actually useful thing to do. but at the data we have with the clinical trials, enrolling people that have high risk of progression. i would say, though, the two drugs, the merck drug and the pfizer drug are different in their mechanism of action and the pfizer drug is something called protease inhibitor. it inhibits a step in the viral replication in which an enzyme, protease, cuts down the virus. when you make cookies, you make cookies and you try to cut them, so you have the final shape, this drugs are very similar to dr

>> there was a periody it was approaching that of merck's, and now merck is more than twice the size,ed quickly. >> merck has one great drug, obviously, but we do know, carl. that the mrna, that template works. i was listening to a doctor the other night who runs a major cancer hospital in new york, who was saying, look, we now know that mrna is the future. he's very smart. i feel badly about what happened in the meeting when he comes home with meg -- i think he's good, right >> he's no bourla, but people say, jim, it's biontech. >> we'll give credit wherever it should be. i'm keeping an eye on disney and netflix. no rebound for disney. they're about 4 billion apart. >> every division has lost a little more. and, david, are you going to be drawn to the $1.99 for one month free for all >> no. i think i'm paying for disney plus, hulu, espn plus, amazon, paying for netflix. >> i don't think we're alone. >> i think i'm paying for paramount plus i needed cbs to watch a football game, it was like $60 a -- i don't even know what i get there. >> do you pay for rabbit ears? >> do you ever watc

so merck, which owns this antiviral, merck did a clinical trial with 762 participants.those folks were hospitalized with covid and 9 of them died of covid. of the half that got the drug, 28 of them were hospitalized, a much smaller number, and none of them died. that really is quite impressive. and so those are the results the fda advisers will be looking at next week. >> those numbers 9-0 are really impressive. but what are the safety concerns that you think is going to dominate this meeting next week the fda advisers are having on this? >> so this drug seems to work so well because it basically messes with the virus' rna, with its genetic materials. that's why they get those impressive results. but because it messes with the genetic material, there are concerns that the virus could become -- that there could be variants, that the drug could lead to variants and that could be a problem for the vaccine. merck says that's not true. they tested this out. they did not see dangerous variants among the folks who took this drug. there's also a concern, could it mess with huma

rob: we heard a moment ago that merck has introduced a pill that gives some form of vaccine.erstand that pfizer is introducing another one. do you think that is going to make a difference in terms of persuading people that a vaccine is able to be taken? is a pill easier to understand than an injection? is it less frightening? will it make a difference? >> these pills are indeed important additional tools. they cannot replace the vaccines. vaccines are meant to prevent cases, so you want to bring down the cases. if you do not prevent, you will have explosive cases. even if you can trade some of them with a success rate of about 50%, you can still overwhelm hospitals. we embrace every drug treatment. we need to embrace this to help us get out of the pandemic. the strongest tool we have at hand is a high vaccine coverage rating all populations, but particularly amongst older persons. rob: how is peace -- how easy is it going to be to persuade countries to step up their efforts if they have not been able to achieve that in two years, and yet the vaccines are available if they are

merck says he believes the drug will have similar effects against any coronavirus variant. >>> u.s. health officials say it will take a few more weeks before we know whether the current vaccines protect against the omicron variant . they continue to urge all adults to get the shots and boosters. the strain has been confirmed in at least 19 countries so far and territories since it was first reported in south africa just last week. moments ago, brazil and japan reported their first cases. meanwhile, president biden's warning that omicron will reach the united states . >>> we spoke with a marin health dr. about omicron and where we stand early on . >> how much more transmissible is this than the delta? >> early reports make it look significantly more transmissible but we do not know if it is a super spreader event or if this is true any transmissible nature of the virus. it is evolving by the moment. i tried to update myself before this interview and i was impressed to see that the virus was detected in the netherlands one week ago. there is a lot we do not know yet. it is about sleut

also coming from merck.se drugs have been shown to reduce deaths and hospitalization for up to 90% if started early. they're pills. you don't have to have an id for it. if you start it early in the early days of diagnosis of covid, they can be helpful. we need to get it approved rye right away. >> if the markets overreacted today, is it a great time to buy? >> look, i think longer-term, you never bet against america and corporate america and american companies. so maybe we'll get some pickups and we'll end up with bear markets along the way. eventually the markets are going higher and we're going to see moves in many names going forward that are breakthrough technologies in medicine. look what they are great medical companies that have done for the vak seen, basically saved the world in the last year. going to see more of that going forward. >> great to have both of you to dig deep on top stories tonight. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> shopping mall in north carolina was placed on lockdown after a repor

. >> they have been antivirals of our hearing about from both the merck and pfizer these drugs do to correlate for five day course and it can prevent you from been getting serious illness hospitalizations so there thinkeaking drugs and i we will likely see them to be by the end of the year and in the best case scenario we may see the merck drug first before christmas and then the pfizer drug falling and in the uk merck drug is already approved. these are pillsre you can take. they can prevent you from being hospitalized or die and that's me is a major breaking advance because if you can simplify the treatment and have it at home, that makes this such an easier type of virus to treat compared to what we have to do now where we only really have monochrome deal antibodies which require injections and people having to wait for half an hour or so after they have been given the medication to be observed it it may really have a major benefits and hopefully this comes to fruition have like we have the testing and for structure because there is a window of time these drugs are most effective

it's also an important day for merck and their antiviral will be reviewing it.ations that you're hearing from your reporting in terms of what the staff has said and when we might hear something >> so, the meeting is ongoing already. we're hearing from scientists this morning talking about how the drug works and safety and efficacy it's expected to go until 5:00, when the committee is expected to vote. just before then on whether to recommend who should be authorized and looking at the fda documents that came out last week is they're in favor of clearing this they just want guidance on the appropriate patient populations. pregnant women, vaccinated verses unvaccinated. giveen the characteristics of the drug but we should have more throughout the course of the afternoon. >> thank you megtyrell. >>> let's get to steve liesman on what to expect from powell and yellen both testifying shortly. >> yeah, markets dialing back on their expectations for fed rate hikes amid fears of the new virus variant. powell will say the outlook for inflation is more uncertain and eris

pfizer and merck, we got new data from merck that showed us they continue the trial for which they saidubmitted the interim it seems quite effective from people from dying panel meeting this week, but these don't act on the spike proteins, so their importance can't be underestimated, i would imagine, when we see variants like the one out of the south africa >> one of the beauties is that they seem to be very broadly active, ace cross multibalance viruses, not just sars co-v-2. we need more information about this, but that's what i'm hear from these experts as well the merck documents from the fda have posted today. the efficacy drove to 30% from about 489% tess interim look it really looked like an improvement in people who got counted were in the placebo trial, they did better in the second half of the trial than the people in the first half of the trial. so from the fda documents, it looks like the fda is leaning toward clearing this, and the question is really what population is appropriate. they asked specifically about pregnant women, and the risk that a multiple peer review could

. >> the merck pill is one with -- >> i think it was the merck pill. >> 1one's 50 and one's 90. i don't know if we need to -- >>> american airlines is going to pay flight attendants extra to work during peak holiday travel periods trying to avoid holiday staff short falls that contributed to more than 2,000 flight cancellations late last month. those who worked during peak holiday periods will earn 150% of their pay, those with no absences will receive triple pay for their holiday hours. >> that's smart. >> i'm waiting for my waiting for something. i've been here since april 20th, 2020, i haven't seen anything. >> i think we're okay. >> we're doing well pay wise. >> a thank you would be -- >> thank you. >> or are, you really are an essential worker. >> you rock, atta boy. >> god bless them and i'm not one of them. >>> coming up friday's announcement of pfizer's new pill sent shock waves through the bio pharma sector. do you think it's a coincidence, april 20th, isn't that like pot day, too i just thought about that. >> you are correct, 4/20. >> and later, weighing in on the posi

they have approved another covid fighting pill come up from merck. studies show this pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half among recently infected people. the bill has been approved for people with at least one risk factor for covid. those would include being over the age of 60, obese, or having heart disease. >> to have a drug like this, an antiviral that is potent, able to be taken orally, is a very important moment, and does mark a milestone point >> the merck pill is set for review in the u.s. later this month. the pfizer pill needs to be submitted for authorization. health officials warn none of these treatments are a substitute for getting the vaccine. >>> first it was a san jose sharks, and now the cal football team is dealing with multiple covid breakthrough cases. the sharks say they have a 100% vaccination rate, and cal says it is at 99%. why so many breakthroughs? kpix 5's da lin explains why it is especially hard to protect sports teams point >> reporter: when dr. says vaccine effectiveness the clients of the time. that's one p

merck's drug is on track for potential authorization by the end of the year. pfizer's by early 2022. >> once we get through this delta wave of infection over the course of the next two months, i think that this therapeutic and the other innovations that we've seen coming to market really mark the end of the pandemic for the united states. >> could be a big new weapon in this fight. let's get to whit johnson tonight. i know this is also a big weekend ahead for parents across the country when it comes to children 5 to 11 who are finally able to get their vaccinations. and you've got news on that front tonight. >> reporter: david, both walgreens and cvs will start offering covid shots for kids over the weekend. plus parents can now search from 10,000 locations across the country on the federal website vaccines.gov or call their pediatrician. the full rollout for younger children expected to ramp up next week. david? >> whit johnson, we'll see you here this weekend. whit, thank you. >>> we're going to move on to the nation playing its final respects to general col

. >> today, merck released a covid treatment pill, only 30% effective in preventing deaths in hospital fda advisory panel is scheduled to meet on tuesday to discuss whether to recommend the pill or fda authorization. >> mike: jonathan serrie live in atlanta, many thanks. wall street took a big tumble, the dow fell 905, the nasdaq dropped 354. the dow lost two percentage points, the s and p failed to win a fifth. the biden administration is bracing for another surge in the coronavirus pandemic by limiting travel from south africa and several other countries, jacqui heinrich is in the president on nantucket tonight, good evening. only hours after dr. anthony found she said u.s. health officials were seeking information from their south african counterparts about how this virus spreads and whether vaccines are effective against it, he made those recommendations to the president to. we don't know what was shared and what data was presented but it was enough to impose those travel restrictions starting on monday. >> we don't know a lot about it, except that it's of great concern and it spre

are 12 or 13 times there's a yield of 3.6 for merck, 2.9 for pfizer.seems like a good place, an environment where pfizer -- they are to longer going to be the punching bag for politicians when you consider what pfizer has done how much they have helped us with the pandemic. i think they are no longer the punching bag if there's a build back better, we will see, it's watered down somewhat in how much pressure there will be on drug prices for a lot of reasons, i like this space i think pfizer, they have a lot of things, but i think they have now somewhat of an annuity with covid as something we will live with as opposed to something we will get rid of. >> at the same time from moderna, the more biotech area in this sector, it's harder to make the case. >> it is i think moderna's move is a 40% move in the previous five days it was more cautious in their comments this morning. i think that didn't help on the headline i think, obviously, at is point, a month ago there was a lot of questions and the stock was playing out an existential battle with, what do t

merck's quarter was just can be anti-cancer franchise. just feel that one. >> it's weird, because it's all over the uk tabloids >> look, planet fitness was very good last time i had a game open show, i had planet fitness, and papa john's, even with game open did well, and i was saying to regina, i can't believe we nailed it. this is what people need to know planet fitness is back, and rondo has been fantastic it's the analog, when you think about peloton, they're going to planet fitness everyone said the franchises would go under, but it turned out -- i mean, my wife was the state champion when she was 14, and she thought this was the greatest thing in the world. as soon as ben came back, that's when the towels, the clothes, by the way, it's not that good. as a clothes holder, it's not. things fall off. that is doug foley should have figured it out how do you keep some of your undergarments on it without falling. >> they have some work to do clearly. >> it was a bad call it was a bad call. it was the bad call of the night, and it was jarr

keytruda from merck.ut keytruda. >> o'donnell: in havre de grace, maryland, a man was rescued after driving his car into the susquahanna river. a rescue boat team who happened to be filming a training video at the same time jumped into action. the driver was pulled out and rushed to a hospital. all right, a new jersey teen dedicated the game of his life to his mom this weekend. alex round threw for six touchdowns and rushed for two more as his red bank catholic beat morris catholic 58-34. listen to this: just the day before alex lost his mom michelle after a nearly 15-year battle with breast cancer. after the game alex said "i knew she was looking down the whole time." thousands reached out. tom brady reached out, too, on social media to send his very best. think about that. all right, coming up next, a fisherman's quest to change f lives for the better. better. i'm still drawn to what's next. even with higher stroke risk due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment th

keytruda from merck.r doctor about keytruda. >> today marks 52 years since native american activists first took control of alcatraz island to mark the occasion today, the first native american secretary of the interior, visit to the island along with leaders of that movement. >> as kron four's camila barco reports for us right now. it wasn't just day to remember what's already been done but also a day to look forward as to what can now be changed. >> at the track is known as the prison at how some of the most famous comics. but after it shut down in 1963 indian tribes made their way to the island. us secretary deb palin visited alcatraz on saturday and says there's a lot of work to be done. i am here. >> we are here and we're not going anywhere. we're in a era. >> u.s. secretary of the interior deb haaland is advocating for indigenous communities. 52 years ago. the situation was dire holland remembers november 2019 69. it's the day indigenous activists also known as the indians of all tribes, occupied alc

in the u.k., the merck drug is already approved. these are pills that you can take like tamiflu for influenza. they can prevent you from being hospitalized or dying. if you can simplify treatment and have it at home, this is such an easy virus to treat compared to now, where we only have monoclonal antibodies which require infusions or injections, people having to wait after being given medication to be observed. this may have a major benefit. hopefully, this comes to fruition, because there is a window of time where this dish these drugs are most effective. you want to make sure people get them early on. the fact that these are about to be available is going to change the way we deal with covid. host: dr. amesh adalja is a senior scholar at the bloomberg school of public health, center for health security. (202) 748-8000, the line for those of you in the eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 for mountain and pacific. you can also send us a text at (202) 748-8003. dr. amesh adalja, you are also an emergency medical physicia

for antibodies we are concerned that the antibodies may not be potent against omnicron however, the merck drug, the pfizer drug work through very different mechanisms of action and the mutations in spike p protein should not have an impact on whether the drugs still work we believe they will still remain effective >> so much love for the south african scientists who were able to detect this thing and their transparency since then. the experts agree it's likely omnicron is probably here in the united states though it hasn't officially been detected is the u.s. behind other countries in our ability to identify and trace these variants >> we are. i used to work in south africa on hiv and tb and know many of the scientist who is are doing the work on covid. these are top, world class v virologists. we are not doing nearly the scale of sequencing that they are doing. we really should be sequencing about 20% of our cases here in the united states and we still, while we have ramped up, we're still not doing nearly enough. >> the travel bans, medical or political? >> honestly, i think that's larg

they may not want to jeopardize what appears to be a sure bet authorization but we could have merck'sink some people will look at the news about the pfizer drug and look at mandates and say if mandates are supposed to be the thing that prevents people from hospitalization and death, and we have this drug that does this, then why are we still implementing mandates? >> well, i think, carley, your logic is 100% reasonable. that is, this is a deduction that any honest person should make and that is that drugs that reduce the deaths to zero or near zero obviate the need for any mandate. it makes them unnecessary. carley: i think the news of this drug is so exciting and thankfully is coming up pretty soon. on the pfizer front they're looking to get all adults 18 and up the covid-19 booster shot. how do you feel about boosters? there are some people that are vaccine hesitant, not everybody, but some and now we're talking about getting a third jab. >> first of all, with the new drugs out right now, no one should be dying of covid. no one should be dying of covid with rare exceptions. we've go

citi cutting the price target on merck to 105 to 85, saying the pipeline struggle will hold the stockthe analyst citing merck's new data indicating that its covid pill showed lower efficacy for more head over to cnbc.com/pro >>> disney is benefitting from the president's remarks that lockdowns are not needed right now. jim cramer writing that he is bullish on the stock long term and buying more of the stock for his charitable stock sign up for his newsletter by pointing your phone's camera at the qr code on the screen. >>> let's get to rahel solomon for a news update. >> hi, melissa >>> president biden is urging americans to wire a mask indoors and in public places biden says the new omicron variant will appear in the u.s. sooner or later but there's no reason to overreact. >> there are three messages about the new variant i want the american people to hear. first, this variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic. we have the best vaccine in the world, the best medicines, the best scientists, and we're learning more every single day we will fight this variant with scientific