Thread by @PeterHotez

Many thanks ⁦@andersoncooper⁩ for hosting me @AC360 tonight. I’ve been saying that eventually we’ll likely need a 3rd mRNA immunization to further increase virus neutralizing antibodies and cellular immunity to provide more robust protection and resilience against variants

But the publicly available evidence that protection is waning vs delta variant as per Pfizer PR not strong, and evidence from UK elsewhere also indicates pretty robust immunity. So while yes we will eventually need a 3rd immunization based on current data may not be necessary now

Also not clear to me why we would do a booster through an EUA mechanism? There is urgency to get the 3 current US COVID19 vaccines through the full approval mechanism, and then the booster through traditional processes. Otherwise we risk eroding public confidence

Finally, we really must halt doing science by company press release. It’s not only Pfizer, it does not help vaccine confidence

Many thanks to @cnn @AC360 for highlighting the book tonight, that was really nice!