Tony's Diary Package — page 979

nice laudation of me today: the same problems as we are having here in trying to decide what the correct booster should be in the fall. He has already ordered millions of doses of Moderna bivalent which is an omicron plus ancestral as well as Pfizer which is a BA.4/5 bivalent plus ancestral. Moderna is obviously pushing their product, but Karl was very interested in what my opinion was. I told him that on the advice of me and others, the FDA has already authorized the bivalent of BA.4/5 and ancestral for the full dose. It is now up to the CDC and teir ACIp to make a recommendation f who "should" versus "may" receive the dose. We also spoke about the tension regarding vaccinating people now who are at risk of severe complications given that there is a wave of infections in Germany as well as in the United States versus waiting until a more variant-specific boost is available in the fall. Germany is facing the same dilemma as we are in that some people in Germany are arguing in a very similar way to Paul Offit who is saying that we should not be vaccinating people now. Paul is smart and a good friend but he is a victim of what I consider making the perfect the enemy of the good. From a purely immunological standpoint it is obviously not optimal to have a boost now (ancestral) and require an even better boost (bivalend BA.4/5 + ancestral) just a couple of months down the pike. However, you have to balance the public health benefit of getting some form of vaccine to people who are at risk for infection and severe disease now compared to the relatively minor negative effects of giving a vaccine shot now followed in 2 to 3 months by a vaccine shot with a better boost. I was surprised that bloggers such as Paul Offit have a major impact globally. Karl mentioned to me that he and his colleagues listen very carefully to what I say and it would be very helpful to them to hear what I am telling him today and that I agree completely with him since he is absolutely in the same lane as I as well as many of my NIH colleagues including Rick Koup and others. It was a very stimulating conversation and I was on my A game. We then went on to discuss the issue of monkeypox. According to Karl monkey pox is out of control in Germany and similar to what we are seeing in the United States the gay community is very frustrated with the lack of as many vaccines as they need as well as the lack of easy access to antivirals. They seem to be having no trouble with diagnostics which are plentiful. I explain to him that our situation is very similar here in the United States. The conversation ended with him wanting to take a picture with me since his daughter who is 15 years old apparently is a great fan of mine. We exchanged cell phone numbers and he promised me that he would be calling me frequently. John Laureman (Bloomberg) wrote a very nice laudation of me today: An Early Farewell to America's Top Pandemic Expert July 21, 222 Harassment from the far right continues: