they came to me to say mrna. but we could use any because we were mastering the protein vaccines. mrna was the conduit and since 2018 and there was no time in history so then i was surprised and in challenge them as but their conviction was very high so for us if we decided tond do mrna and actually biotech had already resolved at the same time i was asking what we should be using we knew we were working with the mrna vaccine and they are a fantastic first partner and that was ready to deliver that vaccine so we made the mo move. >> so going with mrna so really went with the longshot, the moonshot. >> it was the best possible product but by far the most risky. >> there is so much of this that is politically driven regardless of what side of the aisle you are on, were you surprised, still to this day that politics are driving what is happening with the pandemic? >> yes. i was surprised they knew about the healthcare issues are always at the forefront of the political debate and with the pandemic like that and with those anxieties thatt would be magnified through the political debat

we had the success of the mrna platform which had been under development for a dream for 20 years, 30 years, under development at modernag for ten toning everything from the sort of lipid that the mrna is packaged in july you get this mrna vaccine, these genetic instructions into the body cells where they can stimulate the immune system just right to create that response we need so we can develop antibodies. all of this stuff was kind of like on tap the moment the pandemic broke out. it does doesn't happen a yo earlier we would be still waiting i think. and then the second thing was oe are kind of lucky that it was a coronavirus because they were people who are concerned about coronaviruses, a small group of people admittedly who it's in the first sars outbreak 20 years ago and also were watching was happening, there were these other related coronaviruses like middle east respiratory syndrome and this is a lot of research was going into understanding these viruses, manipulating them and realizing the spike of the coronaviruses going to be an ideal target to go t for. and that was all

it is easy to make mrna. hard to do is to get it into that lipid nano particle so that it is taken up into the tissues and the cells and delivers its mrna message. that is the hard part. lisa: we are talking about the granularity of this virus. we are not talking about wholesale lockdown in the united states or europe. how much is health concerns still keeping people on the sidelines of the labor market in almost every store you go into? dr. beyrer: we are in an interesting place. the data on boosting just keeps getting better. it turns out that mrna is good against protecting against long covid. that is really encouraging, but we are still stuck at 66% overall vaccination in the united states. the vaccine uptake is down to a trickle, and we are not getting the boosting that we need in people over 50 and particularly over 65. as we can see from what is happening in hong kong and vietnam, this can get you in the hospital and can kill you. jonathan: how vulnerable is somebody over 50 who had their booster at th

thtogether with mrna and the flu vaccine. technology is ready to deliver a vaccine because of what they had seen during the work with flu so we made the move. >> by going with mrna, you went with the moonshot here. >> the one that was the best possible but the one that was by far the most. >> there is so much politically driven and regardless of what side the aisle you are in order on, were you surprised still to this day politics driving much of what's happening with the pandemic? >> i was surprised. i knew they are always at the forefront today. the pandemic like that but clearly creates uncertainties andnd anxieties that will be magnified to the political debate but i was thinking because of the magnitude of the threat of this pandemic was representing, that they would do the right thing because that was existential threat. >> are critics at the beginning of this segment and there still are, talking about ulterior motives, pfizer's profits from 9 billion in 2022 almost two and a half to 21 billion last year. your own salar

time in history, but mrna delivered anything as a product. so when they told me that i was surprised and then i challenged a lot. but they're conviction was very high and they convinced him. so for us it was if we were deciding to go mrna biotech was the obvious partner and actually biotech had already reached out to us to ask also for a part and supply that at the same time. i was asking our team what technology you think we should be using so we knew biotech because you were working together with them on mrna on a flu vaccine. and we knew that there are fantastic partner and we knew that the technology is ready to deliver a vaccine because of what we had seen during our work with flu. so we made the move so by going with mrna and correct me if i'm wrong. you really went with the long shot the moonshot here in in terms of it by farther. it was the one that could give theoretically the best possible product. but the one that was by far the most risky. there's so much of this that's politically driven and regardless of what side the aisle that

there were so much that had to be done for us to get to these mrna vaccine to lure so lucky. why is it so difficult to make vaccines and there aren't a lot of companies that make them. in the rest of the world there hasn't been as strong push to make vaccines and last decades and why is that? >> i think the reputation in the pharmaceutical is that they are not real winners in the site from the flu vaccine and if you infectious diseases out there most of the time with emerging diseases by coronavirus or when outbreak emerges in order to test you have to have people who are at risk of catching it and you might note they don't know how effective it is and we don't have ultimately anyone to sell it to. and academic laboratories and nonprofit institutions in later on would become picked up by a pharmaceutical company who knows how to make a vaccine and to the standard that we need to get through with the fda and at the end of the covid pandemic i describe in my book the scene in davos where these major vaccine manufacturers are there in early january and everybody sees the news ab

the boosters recommended are mrna vaccines that are made of the recommended cell. if you have a pfizer satori moderna suck -- a pfizer shot or a -- a pfizer shot or a moderna shot. you should get a booster. that is a recommendation right now. there is a lot of eyes on the state of the vaccine, but i think it is underscoring how important these vaccines have been. i will mention, one million americans, unfortunate, have died over the last two years from covid-19. there is a sin study that shows that if we didn't have these vaccines, the death toll would've been 3 million americans, so over 2 million americans'lives have been saved according to this one model because of these vaccines which are mostly rna vaccines. there is technology that we need to continue to look at and research and follow, but so far, it has been shown to be safe. host: what about if you recently had covid? when should you calculate to get a booster? guest: that is a question that most physician experts are saying that you wait 90 days. if you've gotten infected or booster itself, and getting an

the boosters recommended are mrna vaccines that are made of the recommended cell.f you have a pfizer satori moderna suck -- a pfizer shot or a -- a pfizer shot or a moderna shot. you should get a booster. that is a recommendation right now. there is a lot of eyes on the state of the vaccine, but i think it is underscoring how important these vaccines have been. i will mention, one million americans, unfortunate, have died over the last two years from covid-19. there is a sin study that shows that if we didn't have these vaccines, the death toll would've been 3 million americans, so over 2 million americans'lives have been saved according to this one model because of these vaccines which are mostly rna vaccines. there is technology that we need to continue to look at and research and follow, but so far, it has been shown to be safe. host: what about if you recently had covid? when should you calculate to get a booster? guest: that is a question that most physician experts are saying that you wait 90 days. if you've gotten infected or booster itself, and getting anot

so an mrna vaccine is not a permanent exposure.c patients all over the world and we haven't seen any additional safety signals s signals. and so when you take that together and when you consider that it is a smaller dose that has been effective and potentially protecting against severe illness, you know, i think that we should take that data and look at it and say, okay, this seems to be the safest and most effective way to prevent severe illness and hospitalizations from covid. >> but what do you say to the parents who would argue, look, covid is not as dangerous to kids? you look at the numbers that it is not as harmful to kids as it is adults. and based on what i've seen, the data that i've seen, it is not -- this covid vaccine is not as effective in kids as it is adults. so what do you say to that? >> yeah, no, i mean that is definitely through, right? so when you look at it in relation to adult covid illness for sure, kids formatunately ha been less impacted even through delta and omicron relative to adults ths thankfully. but

we've got mrna they don't have mrna we can help them >> you know, that would be great.ce to have real collaboration. that's one good thing about our vaccines they held up really well and, you know, we didn't get as many booster shots in americans as we have needed to, especially in people of advanced age but you're right, that's one of the liabilities that china had, and even hong kong which had the worst omicron wave in the world. they had more mrna than china which in mainland there's no mrna. >> amazing now, i flew this weekend, we put our masks on you know, we're all keendind ofe to it and we hate it we're trying to figure out why the heck we're still doing it. time to get rid of them? >> well, if you're using cloth masks, they don't do much against omicron, a little bit, but not much that's why it makes it even tougher. if you've got to wear an n95 mask or condkn 94, they're not comfortable, but those are the kind of masks that are needed indoor settings, especially against this hyper contagious family of omicron variant. >> so you think we should keep them on? >>

guy: i understand the chinese are looking at mrna vaccines. they cleared two for further study.hrough what this therapy is the like, how similar they are to pfizer and biontech and ultimately if we go down the mrna route china whether this is the way out of zero covid? sam: i spent some time trying to see what the style or the structure of the sequence they were using in these mrna vaccines are and i did not find enough information about it. let me do it another way. we know already biontech pfizer and the moderna shots have been used extensively as boosters on top of coronavax in other countries. we know what they did in terms of controlling the severity. you never have that information with these other vaccines, even if they are identical. it will continue to be a gamble if they keep running with them and use them as their method of sting out of this issue. that is the problem. kriti: talk about the viruses and these subvariant. what makes them more vera lund. what are you looking -- more vir ulent. what are you looking for in terms of how serious the world should be taking th

it appeals to people who are worried about mrna technology because it is older technology, but a highly sophisticated vaccine, which is nanoparticles. you give that to the body, the body makes antibodies. the other new vaccine is also performing exceptionally well. it's something by gsk. and it is going for full fda approval instead of emergency approval. but both of these are like older vaccines, but with new technology attached, which may appeal to people who are worried about mrna vaccines. kristen: robin, the floor is yours. robin: should i be worried about covid with my teen, or long covid for both of us, or what should i be worried about going forward in the next few months? dr. hong: i would think of your illness as two phases. the first is what you feel like in the first month, the second would be after the first month. you may have, you know, you probably will not feel immediately better because you have these symptoms and it will take two or three weeks, but you will gradually feel stronger. this is not long covid. long covid takes or means you have symptoms beyond a month. th

has much experience as we had, like hepatitis b, what we went to where the mrna vector virus, genetic vaccines. they were much easier to do because you needed that one gene. you were interested in the gene, the surface protein. the fastest vaccine to make, easier than the others. what surprised me negatively was how bad we were at handling this pandemic, making sure we have adequate testing and adequate quarantine, masking and social distancing, the kinds of things that got us under much better control as was true in china, south korea, japan or australia. we were one of the worst countries and 20% of the world's deaths surprised me. i wouldn't have imagined we would be as technologically advanced as we were. we claim american exceptionalism but we were far from exceptional there. >> host: what do you -- we will see how we end up with mortality totals globally. we do sometimes fall prey to these comparisons because we are better at identifying deaths and may be more transparent about reporting them so there could be some of that in there. you are right. there was obviously initially o

as much expense as we had with vaccines like hepatitis b, what we went to worthy mrna or these vector the genetic vaccines. the reason is there a much easier because you need the one gene. you didn't, it was in many ways because you knew the genuine interest in, interest in the gene that coded for the surface protein. in many ways it was a fastest vaccines to make easier than the others. that sort of surprising but what really surprised me negatively was how bad we were at handling this pandemic come just with a simple things like making sure we can have adequate testing and adequate quarantining and masking and social distancing, the kinds of things that could've gotten us at a much better control of the pandemic as was true in china books are in south korea or treat japan or australia. we were one of the worst countries. we have 4% of the world's population of about 20%% of the world's deaths. i wouldn't have imagined we would've been a technological advance as we are to have done that. we always claimed his american exceptionalism but we were far from exceptional there. >> i think,

the fundamental difference between mrna vaccines and vector vaccines, that is, on other vector vaccinesfrequency of myocarditis is shown . it's 10 times lower than mr. tell me please, i want to show the international statistics now . how does vaccination affect the mortality of children from the corona virus is very important to understand. and show us, please, this data, because this data can simply be interpreted in only one way, when you compare zero with zero. you make no difference, there is almost no mortality. yes, zero, no effect on the infection of children on the hospitalization of children. uh, the modern pfizer vaccine was not provided here, by the way, the data is given in the pfizer accent. modern what should we do with the russian vaccine, here is academician ginzburg i already said to administer it every six months, but he is not a doctor, it is important to understand this, these are the scientists who created the vaccine, but the decision should still be made by doctors. what would you say, both as a pediatrician and as an immunologist and as a person who is now partic

it sounds like there was someone last week that was saying mrna vaccines would inhibit the immune system in some way. i am not aware of that science. we have hundreds of billions of americans and people were like -- worldwide who have taken this mr in vaccine -- the boosters being recommended are vaccines that are recommended. if you have a pfizer shot or a moderna shot or j&j shot, the boosters -- what is being recommended is getting an mr in --mrna booster. there are a lot of eyes on the state of the vaccine. this underscores how important and remarkable these vaccines have been. one billion americans have died -- one million americans have died. there is a recent study that shows if we could have the vaccines, the depths -- the death tolls could have been 3 million americans. two americans have been saved because of this model -- because of the vaccines. we need to look at the research to follow. it is shown to be safe and effective. host: what about if you recently had covid, when you should calculate getting a booster. guest: i think most physician experts recommend you wait 90 days

over 18 years of age on september 20 thus sending the message people for example gotten two doses of mrna vaccine or onepe dose of j&j wee not fully immunized. i think we have an excellent vaccine that continues to have excellent protection t against serious disease included delta banner including all age you're up into the present time but you'd never know it by the way everybody is scurrying to get -- to cash in on this booster palouse that we have created where we have scared people we have the third dose fever. we really want to get on top of this pandemic that is not the issue. i can tie the hospital university of pennsylvania in philadelphia when adults come into our hospital under in the intensive care unit is not because i i haven't gotten the third dose they haven't got doses and until we get on top of that we are not really going to heighten a major effect on this pandemic too. >> are right. i share your perspective. and i think sometimes it's hard to pull back into the forest for the trees. if a new disease emerged today that had the hospitalization and mortality rate of vaccin

tom: what is the role of the mrna vaccine and are we any closer to seeing china approve it by modernactively combat this spread? >> as far as i know, we are not filed in china. there are discussions on some level. biontech has filed and i would give at least six months to them. our view, which we wrote in a piece overnight, is that the best way to deal with this, the only way to deal with this is to do local rapid boosting with an mrna type of vaccine. maybe they have some in china they have already made themselves, and allow the infection to spread. tom: china saying we are sticking with our zero covid policy and it is worth taking a look at sam and our team's piece on this. this is important and all of these bring their own challenges. thank you for the insights. let's get the first word news now with laura wright. laura: ukraine says talks with russia are set to resume today as the united nations warns that convoys have so far failed to reach mary a pole. -- mariupol. the international atomic energy agency russia has agreed to move control over chernobyl to ukraine. -- local tv's s

what we use, pfizer, moderna are any of those mrna? >> reporter: no. >> there you go. >> reporter: no. the chinese are coming up with their own. but right now the foreign vaccines are not allowed in this country. so biontech has a relationship with a chinese partner so in practical sense it might be able to ramp up its production of, you know, a foreign vaccine but that hasn't been allowed yet instead right now the chinese are trying to come up with their own mrna vaccine, which is in clinical trials. >> you've been talking about the poli political pressure that xi could come under if the lockdowns aren't lifted broadly in the next few months. is that the idea that this has to be done for his own political survival >> reporter: it's unclear what he thinks is best for his political survival because there's definitely some comments that we've been hearing from leadership about their concern about the economy. for example, the loudest voice right now is the premier who's been repeatedly saying that he's concerned about the economic impact

we are at the point that the mrna stays in the body far too long. at least 60 days.e s1 and s2 for more and a year. the body conceals the spike protein. immunity runs out but the side effects maid persist much longer than what we originally thought. dan: coming up on "unfiltered." the censor-in-chief. barack obama is back. he thinks big tech needs more power to tell us what we can say. pete hegseth has the case. we hit the bike trails every weekend shinges doesn't care. i grow all my own vegetables shingles doesn't care. we've still got the best moves you've ever seen good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but, no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age increasing your risk for getting shingles. so, what can protect you? shingrix protects. you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic

we are at the point that the mrna stays in the body far too long. at least 60 days. and it stays in the the body for the s1 and s2 for more and a year. the body conceals the spike protein. immunity runs out but the side effects maid persist much longer than what we originally thought. dan: coming up on "unfiltered." the censor-in-chief. barack obama is back. he thinks big tech needs more power to tell us what we can say. say. pete hegseth has the case.len pr really been offered a beauty campaign when i was in my twenties or my thirties or my forties. it wasn't until i was 48 years old, when i thought that was way behind me, here you come along and ask me to join you on this journey with meaningful beauty. announcer >>> no matter what your age, now is the perfect time for beautiful, younger-looking skin with meaningful beauty. join ellen pompeo and millions of women who use the age-defying super treatments that have kept supermodel cindy crawford's skin looking so youthful for over 20 years. look at cindy's skin at age 31, and at age 52. there's hardly any difference!

-- mrna vaccines?d be a good choice. using logic and talking it over with your doctor would be a good choice. you also have the -- vaccine. a lot of people who have had a reaction to the mrna -- it is pretty rare -- but if you do, people have moved onto the johnson & johnson vaccine. your last question was why is it not available? that is a fair question to ask in the sense that this is still pandemic. we need to understand where different products are in the pipeline. the fda does a very careful review of the data from all of these vaccines, as they did for the mrna vaccines. it is one of the only regulatory agencies that does not take the results from the companies at face value and re-analyzes the data itself. when you do that, you get an independent look at what the data shows. sometimes that lines up with what the company has presented. you really get to -- i used to work at the fda and i know them. they are doing that now on the novavax vaccine. they will prevent that -- they will present that pu

kailey: of course, j&j, the one-shot vaccine is different from the mrna vaccines of pfizer and modernashould we expect something similar for them? >> i think they have already done purchase agreements to sign them up. i hope those are in the bag. countries can still step back from taking deliveries and renegotiate. i think some signs of that have come across on my screen. the point is, the j&j vaccine, is a good vaccine, but not as effective when it comes to the two-shot mrna vaccines. anna: meanwhile, where think about a different situation in china. they have been early good at keeping down the death rate for covered. but that's because they have been keeping it at bay to this point. it is difficult for them, juggling to operate they have at this point in the economy. where is this heading now? >> i think they did a great job. if you have a virus that takes a few days to infect and you become infectious, you can manage it. but they have proven this is not going to be something they can keep. it is omicron that is doing it. kailey: part of the issue in china is the lack of natural imm

as of last week, 50 plus and get a second mrna booster. president biden, vice president harris got theirs last week, they are calling people to do that. if they open it up for the broader adult population. this is what the money is needed for. joe biden has signaled openness. they will say basically we will take what we can get. host: let me open this up to the callers. a busy week in washington, two guests in studio. happy to be here. taking your questions about the weekend in washington. republicans, (202) 748-8000. democrats, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. marianne levine, the first hour of the program we spent talking about the reaction over the weekend to the cdc announcing they would be lifting title 42 come may. republicans already signal and they will talk about that this week. we heard kevin mccarthy has some sort of an event today after talking with border agents. the reaction that you have seen over the weekend and how that issue plays out, how republicans want to see that issue play out this week? guest: republic

the mrna technology may not be holding up as well in terms of boosters as we originally hoped.saying to you, you know, it's not going to be one and done and two and done but could be three and done and i believed at the time but then we had disappointing news in that the effectiveness of the booster declined after several months to 66% against emergency room protection, 78% against hospitalizations, still good but not as good as it was and hence the reason now for the recommendation of the second booster. the question now is, is that going to be the same issue? is it going to decline after a few months? so i think that's the reason why dr. fauci, you know, mentions the possible need for an annual booster but there's an alternative to think about as well. maybe we need to look beyond the mrna technology to something else, for instance, a recombinant protein injection. a vaccine given to 20 million kids in india and looking something along those lines has to be on the table. >> the vaccine you worked on? >> that's right. we've developed a recombinant protein vaccine released for

one of the advantages of the mrna platform is how easy it is to make the vaccine.ch became available so quickly for that reason. there are a lot of high hopes for the novavax vaccine and other vaccines based on protein itself. there are other vaccines using that technology. first of all, there are additional vaccines that i think are going to come that are going to be effective using other mechanisms. like protein. the second question was, would that be a good choice someone -- choice for someone who had a reaction to the mrna vaccines? it could be a good choice. i think that totally makes sense, your logic, and talking it over with your doctor would be a good choice. you have the options of a johnson & johnson vaccine, which is a slightly different vaccine, and a lot of people who have had a reaction to the mrna -- it is pretty rare to have a reaction -- but if you do, people have moved onto the johnson & johnson vaccine for those additional shots without problems. your last question was, why is it not available? i think that's a fair question to ask in the sense

mrna vaccines are also a whole new kind of vaccine we have not used previously. that we have many different childhood vaccines, this is the first mrna vaccine we are using in children. >> do you think the policy so far -- i mean, the fda has gotten some criticism about this. some people think that they should have let the pfizer -- basically that they should have allowed parents to make the choice, even if the efficacy threshold was not with they wanted to be with the pfizer proposal. and that they have been stalling. what is your sense of how they are navigating this? >> so, as a person who -- i used to sit on the advisory committee to the cdc, i am very familiar with these processes used to evaluate and review vaccines. i really want to see the fda to have a chance to review the full data, not just the data that's released in a press release. but the foal data, to really look at the safety and efficacy of the vaccines before they are approved. and i want to cdc advisory committee tea to also have an opportunity to review. so, i think it's a bit early to be talk

i think we should have waived the patent for the mrna vaccines . south africa is going to make them and see what happens. they are violating the agreement, and i think they should. and we need to get more vaccines out. we are nowhere in near where we need to be for different countries. parts of asia like china and almost all of africa except for south africa. kristen: dr. monica gandhi, thank you so much for talking with us. next, we are breaking down the deal. elon musk has reached one with kristen: welcome back. $44 billion. that's how much my -- money elon musk will pay to acquire twitter and make it a private company. the deal was reached this morning. he said he wanted to buy twitter because he does not think it is living up to its potential as a free speech platform. today he said, i hope that even my worst critics remain on twitter, because that is what free speech means. my goodness. this surprised a lot of people. twitter said yes to the proposal. ian: me from three weeks ago is super surprised. if you ask me the list of people i thought w

>> i would be sticking with the mrna booster, or if you have any doubts at all talked away professional. what booster is available to you is the best to get. kristen: want to go back to that idea that more cases could be coming. this weekend we have the holidays, easter, ramadan, passover. what do you think people need to keep in mind? what is the safe thing to do. >> the same rules generally apply, we are just in a much safer place. i cannot believe this is our third easter in a pandemic. we are in a much better place in terms of vaccines and immunity. if you live with someone who is high risk and you were planning on gathering it is perfectly reasonable to ask people if they are vaccinated or asking people to get tested. we have access to these home rapid tests. i was symptomatic two weeks ago. i rapid tested myself because people around you deserve to know if you are symptomatic or positive. i am dressed very festive for the weekend. kristen: our graphics are blocking the money. happy easter. >> likewise. kristen: our media partner at the san francisco standard spent 15 minutes grill

hundreds of millions vaccine then you find things out you wish you knew beforehand.you find out the mrna vaccines are a real cause of micro card ice. you found that the johnson and johnson vaccine is a very rare cause of something called thrombosis which means blood clots and concluded blood clots in the brain which can be fatal.there were a number of people who died from that vaccine. now, so the point is this you have systems in place now that can actually detect as rare as the blood clotting, the vaccine was one for 500 people. but the myocarditis which is one for 50,000 people so these are extremely rare and it's only because of those tragedies of the past led to these y systems that allow us to monitor vaccines in this case postapproval but again i think you're right. we do enormous level of distrust and it is remarkable to me that 1 million people in the united states continue to not get this vaccine despite the fact that the evidence can save your life and be clear. >> is someone in the scientific medical community, using our role lives intimidating to the public and what advice w

i would like to discuss the covid-19 roosters, in the -- covid-19 boosters, in the context of mrna boost. let's get an overview of the situation we are in. several studies have shown that covid-19 vaccine booster shots protect against serious illness, hospitalizations and death. . that is a well-established fact now. the cdc recommends everyone aged 12 and older to receive a covid-19 vaccine booster, after completing her primary vaccination series. certain individuals can receive two booster doses. people who are -- with moderately -- who are moderately or severely immunocompromised. as we know, on march 29 at the fda authorized second booster doses of two covid-19 vaccines for older and immunocompromised individuals. the cdc recommended that same day, that additional boosters cannot be used for certain individuals. -- can be used for certain individuals. the first booster doses restore the waning vaccine effectiveness of a primary vaccine series, including against severe diseases. the effectiveness of the first booster dose, we know wanes over time. growing evidence indicates that a sec

also, they've used different vaccines which are not mrna. >> reporter: the doctor believes our hospitals will be okay during the next surge. however, we could see disruptions at work and school. back in shanghai giancarlo is left to wait it out stuck by precautions meant to prevent bigger disruptions. in san jose, nbc bay area news. >>> congress is nearing a compromise to provide $10 billion of new covid spending. president biden pushed for the infusion of money yesterday when he got his second covid booster shot the president originally asking for $15 billion. the president is urging lawmakers to act fast noting his administration has already cut back on some orders for vaccines, testing, and treatment. public health experts are warning we may be headed for the other wave of infections with the highly contagious ba.2 variant that you heard stephanie and the doctor talking about. congress could approve the spending bill by next week. >>> coming up at 6:30 on nbc "nightly news" the network makes a return visit to el cerrito high school a year after the nbc cameras went to the school, back

two of the mrna vaccines will be up for clinical trial. up .6%. gains too the kospi. the, taking a look at the aussie dollar. we are keeping tabs on what the bond market is right now. repeating much have yields rising in line with what we have been seeing in the u.s. japan bucking the trend. there are expectations the curb will steepen from here onward. in terms of commodities, we are tracking oil. brent crude down. wti below $100 a barrel. concerns about a slowing china. keep an eye on talks with u.s. and iran, some say impending agreement. that would mean supply coming back to the market. rishaad: yeah. lots of positive news coming out of tehran. let's have a look at something which is making itself felt right now. it is perhaps a bit of a climbdown coming from beijing concerning chinese listed stocks in the u.s. we have these stocks on the way up as beijing seeks to remove a key sticking point in this audit dispute we have with the u.s. it does ease some investor concerns about shares getting kicked off american benchmark indices. removing a rule that limits sharin

that last longer than the mrna vaccines.or now and even then, completely miss message at this, you heard the president miss message this. the fourth shot is only for people at high risk, people who may have high-traffic, or may themselves be elderly, much older than you at high risk symptoms like obesity or other medical issues or immunocompromised. not every buddy over 50 needs the fourth shot. that messaging turns people off. stuart: quick question. some people say i don't want to take this vaccines because the mrna vaccine changes your immune system, alters your personal immune system. is that accurate? >> i don't believe that. i think vaccines have evolved in a positive direction. the mrna is in your body for two days similar to what your own body makes thousands of them a day, signal certain cells to make parts of the protein and the virus, does it cleanly. i think it is safe. it has been given 300 million shots already. there are side effects and they shouldn't downplay the side effects but i do not believe in any way

yes, a lot of it is about mrna vaccines which they haven't really developed yet at home.t's partly about vaccination policies and so on. a politics is also quite important. and it's too big an issue to walk away from or be defeated on. my view is they will continue. we know that shanghai is in a lot of trouble. beijing mass testing has started in the most populous districts. there is a rush on food supplies in supermarkets and so on. people are expecting some sort of lockdown before long. the only caveat for beijing is since they have only had practice for the winter olympics, the administration of running zero covid, it might be better than shanghai. but there is no question that zero covid will persist and xi jinping has told us that it will. tom: what happened to the smart technocrats that we could rely on leading advice when it comes to finance and economics, have a just been trumped by the ideology? once we could have relied on them to put forward a policy mix that would level the playing field and rewrite the ship. george: yes, since 2012 when xi jinping came to pow

there's been some suggestion that china should start a massive campaign to use mrna vaccine, much more effective vaccine against omicron but they are resistant to doing that, so they're trying to basically lock everyone down in the hopes of preventing the spread of the virus. what they should be doing is revaccinating the country with a more effective vaccine. >> i mean, the steps they're taking are pretty remarkable to see playing out now this far in to the pandemic. leaning on your resume, we also learn about vice president kamala harris tested positive for covid yesterday. she's vaccinated and double boosted and told today she's taking pfizer's anti-viral covid pill. what do you think of the treatment and what all is going on around the vp right now with this? >> that really maacs no sense to me. so we were told yesterday that the vice president was asymptomatic, she tested positive on a routine test. the president and vice president are apparently tested twice a week. and that she tested positive in one of these routine tests but had no symptoms. so paxlovid is not really a drug to

robert malone an mrna scientist was permanently nuked for questioning the vaccine. daily wire co-founder jeremy boring made a joke about brussel sprouts and was knocked off. libs of tiktok remember those guys? they were suspended for hateful conduct after bringing attention to videos made by these radical loans all libs of tiktok was was a mirror. they just held up a mirror to libs of tiktok. and they got suspended. and the most egregious of all? twitter silenced the "new york post" for the bombshell report on the biden laptop from hell. do you know the laptop that's now been verified by the "new york times" and "the washington post." you weren't allowed to share or read that report before the election. you know, that was dangerous misinformation. probably from russia. you remember all the cia spooks told us that? it aired all the biden family dirty laundry if donald trump jr. did it slice of that stuff he would have been toast. twitter didn't want you to know about the chinese diamond that they bribed the big guy's son with or the 10% they were holding for the big

. >> they wanted to have a piece of mrna that you could make in a few days with no real situational awarenesswe have a brand-new technology from that so there is a learning curve. and so, it was all about speed and innovation, un-enough to vaccinate north america and western europe and the u.k. reporter: how did they raise the money? >> texas is philanthropic like you would not believe. foundations with which we already had prior experience for our other portfolios, they came to the rescue. tito vodka came to us. reporter: what was your reaction when you got the call from tito vodka? >> you are never surprised. reporter: part of the vaccine equity problem rests in the wide variation of costs. this no-frills vaccine which does not require special handling is being manufactured in india at a cost to the indian government of $1.90 per dose and the company can make 100 million doses per month. by contrast, a dose of pfizer in the u.s. costs the government $19.50, a price that is expected to rise. >> if you are a privileged member of society with money, you have access to health and can afford the