Eric Topal News Today

You know, a matter of days. i know that just kind of worried me. >> reporter: despite being boosted, clays bmi of 35 placed him at higher risk, so clays doctor prescribed him paxlovid, an antiviral that has been shown to reduce hospitalizations by nearly 90% among those at highest risk for developing severe disease. >> they are a game changer. and have the potential to -- to dramatically alter the impact of covid-19. >> reporter: paxlovid is a combination of oral pills that work by interfering w...

An antiviral that has been shown to reduce hospitalizations by nearly 90% among those at highest risk for developing severe disease. >> theyre a game changer and have the potential to dramatically alter the hymn pact of covid-19. >> reporter: paxlovid is a compli biination of oral pills that work by interfering with the virus ability to replicate. based on the high efficacy, the 20 million courses bought by the biden administration could eventually prevent more than a million hospitalizations. b...

Necessary if we see very low levels of circulating virus, which is the hope in the weeks and months ahead. >> i mean looking at the situation with the fourth dose, the law of diminishing returns coming into play? >> well, you know, its four months after the third dose, there is some evidence -- at least from israel -- of people having the same type of thing that happened with the initial booster. so, at least for people at high risk is something to think about. thats what we saw with the -- the ...

Days. with more re-openings planned throughout the course of the year. nina dos santos, cnn, london. to san diego now. dr. eric topal, cardiologist. welcome back to "cnn newsroom." >> great to be with you, zwron. >> so, around the world, we are seeing restrictions coming to an end or easing up to varying degrees. it is all part of living with covid stage that we are now in. the british prime minister outlined the big picture of how this would work during question time monday. here he is. >> it...

Transmissible variant. and that is now slowly starting to rise in the united states. and i expect that we will see a pretty definitive evidence of an increase in cases in the united states probably by the end of this month. >> reporter: other health experts caution the u.s. may not be as prepared for a potential ba.2 variant surge. in the uk, 86% of eligible people are fully vaccinated, with 67% boosted. those figures, significantly lower in the u.s. white house officials also detailed this week...

>> it seems to be inevitable at this point, unless were extremely lucky. i wouldnt want to count on the odds are against us here. every other time -- that is, five other times that europe and uk warned us -- it came here. so, looks like its going to do that again. >> yeah. and that -- that is your blunt and necessary assessment, dr. topal, and we certainly admire your perseverance. the rest of us are distracted. you are there, steady as you go and keeping us informed. really appreciate it. >> th...

People are fully vaccinated with 67% boosted. those figures significantly lower in the u.s. white house officials also detailed this week that covid-19 relief funding from the american rescue plan is running out. officials say more funds would be critical if a second booster shot is required. on thursday, moderna announced that it could seek fda approval for a second booster shot for all adults. polo sandoval, cnn, new york. for more on this, we are going to bring in dr. eric topal with script...

Cardiologist with scripts research. good to have you in again for your expertise. we definitely need it, once again. okay, ba.2. we just heard that likely that means there could be more of a surge of it here in the united states. what do we know about this variant? and are the vaccines still effective against it? >> right, well, good to be with you, paula. the ba.2 is a sister of the original ba.1 omicron. it has a lot of different mutations, but the good thing is that vaccines with a booster ar...

To topal, and we certainly admire your perseverance. the rest of us are distracted. you are there, steady as you go and keeping us informed. really appreciate it. >> thank you. and i want to thank you for spending part of your day with me. im paula newton. stay with us. our coverage begins right after the break with our live continuing coverage. from ukraine. ever wonder what everyones doing on their phones? theyre banking, with bank of america. the grooms parents? they just found out they can...