Dr. Anthony Fauci discusses approval of updated COVID booster shots that target omicron

Judy Woodruff:

Americans 12 and older should be able to start getting updated booster shots for COVID within days. That is after the CDC and the FDA gave approval this week to new boosters from Pfizer and Moderna that will hopefully provide more protection against the latest variant this coming winter.

For the latest questions around this and more, I'm joined again by Dr. Anthony Fauci. He's the president's chief medical adviser and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Fauci, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

So, with the news that this — these new vaccines, boosters are now going to be available, there's understandable confusion about out there about who should get them and when. Is there a clear, simple rule of thumb that people should follow?

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Adviser to President Biden: Well, if you look at the eligible,who is essentially approved by authorization and recommended by the CDC, it's just what you said, that, for the Pfizer, it's 12 years of age and older, and, for the Moderna, it's 18 years of age and older.

The need for it clearly varies considerably depending upon one's risk. There would be a — certainly, a greater benefit if you are an elderly person or a person who has an underlying condition. If you're a young, healthy person, the relative differential of the benefit might be less, but there would be a degree of benefit, essentially, for everyone.

So the need to get it would certainly be weighted heavily towards those who have underlying conditions, who are elderly. But that doesn't mean that there's some degree — that there's not some degree of advantage for anyone within the framework that the FDA approved and that the CDC recommended.

Judy Woodruff:

And what about the guidelines, Dr. Fauci, in terms of how long to wait after one's most recent shot or booster or after one's had COVID?

Dr. Anthony Fauci:

Well, after the — as the FDA had mentioned and the CDC also is that, when you're talking about when your last shot was, you need to wait at least eight weeks or two months. When you're dealing with a prior infection, you should wait about three months, at least three months from the time that you had a prior infection.

I myself am in that category. And that's exactly what I'm going to follow. I was vaccinated, doubly boosted, but I got infected towards the middle and end of June. So I'm looking forward to getting the updated BA.5 variant vaccine. And I'm going to wait three months. So that will put me somewhere around the late part and end of September.

Judy Woodruff:

We noticed, Dr. Fauci, that one of the members of the CDC panel that approved — voted to approve these new vaccines said he voted against it, among other things, because he said it has not been studied in humans.

Should that give anyone pause?

Dr. Anthony Fauci:

I don't think so at all, for the following reason.

Vaccines that were in the same general category as the BA.5 bivalent, which was a BA.1 bivalent, has pretty good information that we have got, and they are so similar that the idea that there's going to be any special difference I think is such a far, far, far fetch.

When you think about the experience of this platform, namely, vaccines that are the mRNA, expressing a certain insert, we have billions of doses that have been given to people. So it's treated very much like the strain change that you would treat during the influenza decision about giving a new strain of a vaccine to individuals without extensive testing.

So, we feel pretty comfortable that, when you look at the totality of the data and the experience, it's not something that I am concerned about.

Judy Woodruff:

I think it's fair to say that the success of these boosters is going to depend a lot on how widely they are accepted, how many people get them.

At the same time, we are in a period where the country's, if you will, vaccine delivery system has been scaled back from — well back from what it was. And there are now questions about why that is. The administration is saying they didn't have the congressional funding, which then raises the question, should the administration have done more to — I don't know, to move funds around so that, as long as this COVID is the threat that it is, that there is an easier ability for Americans to get the vaccine?

How do you see that?

Dr. Anthony Fauci:

Yes, I see that we need to do the best we can.

And that's the reason why you have heard us, several of us, as part of the team, the White House and HHS team, saying why we need to have the continuation of the resources in the funding that are necessary for us to optimize our response.

There's only a certain amount that you could move around from other programs without significantly negatively impacting those programs. So, the federal government is purchasing 171 million doses that we will make available free to people. And, certainly, we want to make sure we make it in an equitable manner, so that the distribution is clear, so that anyone has equal opportunity to get that vaccine.

Judy Woodruff:

So, your point is that the administration has done everything it can to move money around to get that vaccine available?

Dr. Anthony Fauci:

You know, yes. As a matter of fact, I mean, obviously, you can always look and see, can you take it from here or take it from there?

But there's always the danger of seriously negatively impacting the programs from which you take that money. And that's the reason why we need to have continued support. The Congress has been very generous up to this point with us. So there's no complaint about that.

But looking ahead for the challenges that we have, we do need continued support with more resources.

Judy Woodruff:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president's chief medical adviser, we thank you very much.

Dr. Anthony Fauci:

Thank you. Good to be with you.