With summer travel season under full swing, the COVID-19 pandemic may seem like a thing of the past.

But if you don’t stay up to date on your vaccines and boosters, the consequences could be dire, according to President Biden’s chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“If they don’t get vaccinated or they don’t get boosted, they’re going to get into trouble,” Dr. Fauci told KNX News 97.1 — a Los Angeles radio station — earlier this week.

He points out that the vaccine and booster rates in America are “quite discouraging.”

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 228 million Americans (or 70% of the U.S. population) were not up to date with COVID-19 vaccines as of July 20, 2022. Staying “up to date” on vaccines means having received the primary series and at least one booster dose.

It’s hard to say whether Dr. Fauci’s warning will lead to more Americans getting COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots. But it does give investors a reason to check in on companies making those vaccines.

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Moderna (MRNA)

Right now, the most dominant strain of COVID in the U.S. is Omicron’s BA.5 subvariant. And Moderna could help the country fight it.

Earlier this week, the company’s CEO Stéphane Bancel told Yahoo Finance that they are “working really hard” to get a variant-specific booster ready this fall.

“We are already making the BA.4/5 vaccine as we speak,” he says. “We'll give more data as we get closer to it, but we know how important it is. And know every day matters.”

In Q2, Moderna generated $4.7 billion of total revenue, up from $4.4 billion earned a year ago. Management attributed the top line increase to higher product sales of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine.