Are You All Excited for Covid Shot 6?

ERICA HILL: The FDA just authorizing updated boosters from Pfizer and Moderna. So, the reformulated boosters will combine the original vaccine with one that targets specifically those Omicron variants. Pfizer’s vaccine is authorized for those age 12 and up. Moderna’s for people 18 and older. Now, keep in mind here, the CDC still has to sign off on these new boosters. The agency’s vaccine advisers are set to meet and hold a vote tomorrow.

BUCK: I got a big surprise for everybody here. They’re gonna approve the boosters, okay? Just so you know. ‘Cause they’ve approved them in the past even when they could show no efficacy, meaning, “It’s probably not gonna kill you.” So, you know take it, basically was their attitude. It’s fine, it’s safe, but does it work? Who knows. They just approve the boosters anyway. They haven’t even done human trials.

Clay, I have a little question. I don’t have a blue check Ph.D., MD, blabbedy blah, five Ukraine flags on my Twitter, but I will say this. They’re telling us, oh, this is so great, it’s optimized for Omicron. Why are we to think that now the next season of respiratory viruses isn’t going to be a new variant that would evade whatever changes they had made to update it for Omicron, which started a year ago? I’m just wondering.

CLAY: We’re already way behind just based on the Omicron booster shot. We’ve gotta stop. I think everybody out there listening to us on the show can’t call this a vaccine, right? I mean, this is in no way a vaccine. I have gotten and certainly my kids have, too, polio, measles, mumps, rubella. Buck, if you took your kids one day when you have them, if everybody else out there took their kids, if you took ’em to go get their shots, and then they came home with measles, wouldn’t you be like, I don’t know this measles vaccine is really working that well. Five shots, you could still get it and spread it? This is not a vaccine. It’s like —

BUCK: — term therapeutic.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: It’s basically if you’re within the window, it might lower your symptoms and maybe slightly less chance of being in the hospital, though, as we know, Berenson says that there is some —

CLAY: That’s not even true.

BUCK: — indicate that not only is that not true but that reinfection rate may actually be higher for some people. That is not proven. This is a theory. But it is rooted in data. Also, when do we get shot six? I’m just wondering. When does shot six come out, guys?

CLAY: A hundred percent shot six will be out in January.

BUCK: They’re gonna stop at shot five? Of course not, everybody. We know what’s going on here.