Coronavirus vaccines are a ‘miracle of science’: Doctor

Dr. Steven Corwin, NewYork Presbyterian Hospital CEO, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the latest on the coronavirus pandemic.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I want to pivot now to COVID-19. And as vaccinations slow in the US, the Delta variant is driving a rise in new cases across the country. And medical experts are now warning that we may be losing time in the vaccination race. Joining me now is Dr. Steven Corwin. He is CEO of New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Doctor, always good to see you. What are you seeing on the ground within your network? Are cases on the rise? And is it because of the Delta variant?

STEVEN CORWIN: We've not yet seen a case rise. We actually have hit our 16 or 17-month low. But I expect that across the country, especially in areas with low vaccination, we're going to see fairly significant upticks. So we are worried about what will happen as we get into the fall, and perhaps even earlier than that.

And I think it's all related, Alexis, to the vaccination rate. If we're going to open up the economy, you really want as many people vaccinated as possible. And that includes the preteens, and the teenagers, and the people who don't think they're going to get ill from it. So I think it's really important, as the president has done, to continue to push people to get vaccinated.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: So that's wonderful news that you're not seeing a rise in cases, at least in your hospitals in the New York area. But by and large, the new cases, they are coming from the unvaccinated population. What would your message be to those who are still hesitant who say, you know what? I still don't trust these vaccines, and I'm going to take my chances and not get vaccinated.

STEVEN CORWIN: You know, I wish I could show them the young people, the older people, people without any sort of comorbid disease who've succumbed to this, who've been in an ICU. Please get the vaccine. We've given over two billion doses worldwide. The vaccines are safe, they're effective. They're effective against the Delta variant.

You're taking a lot greater risk with COVID. Please don't look at the disinformation that's being promulgated about the safety of the vaccine. And really, this is a miracle of science. The mRNA vaccines, the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccine, think where we were a year ago before these vaccines came out.

So let's come together as a country and really get everybody vaccinated. That would be the strongest message I could possibly give.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Doctor, I'd love to get your take on some news we got today coming out of the country's largest nurse's union. They are calling on the CDC to reinstate recommendations for universal facemasks even if you have been vaccinated. Are you hearing that from your own nurses? And what do you think about that recommendation?

STEVEN CORWIN: Well I think the less people you have vaccinated, you get into a situation where people are going to say, look, if we're going indoors and we have a lot of people that aren't vaccinated, let's reinstitute the masks. So you're going to see a lot of varied opinion on that.

And I know we as a country are fatigued about the pandemic, everyone wants to get back to normal, we are getting back to normal. So I understand what the nurses are saying. Certainly, masks can be protective. But the most protective is herd immunity and getting the population vaccinated.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Now, we're in the summer months, more social gatherings are happening. We just finished with the July 4th holiday. And perhaps this is a precursor for us, but we found out that there was a music festival in Holland that led to over 1,000 COVID infections. Do you think that we should be on a local level pulling back the reopenings a little bit when you hear stories like this?

STEVEN CORWIN: You know, we've always struggled with this issue about how much opening, how much can we get back to normal. And the answer is the more you open up and the less vaccinated you are, especially in younger people who want to get together, concerts, and things like that, the more risk you're going to take of getting infections and having a significant outbreak.

So in those states that are 40% vaccinated, it's going to be a lot more likely than in neighborhoods that are 70% vaccinated. So it really comes down to that. And that's why the vaccine push becomes so important. Because without the vaccine, we'd be throttling between who gets masked, how much are you going to allow indoors, are you going to allow indoor dining, can you go to a concert? With vaccinations and the more people that get vaccinated, we're not going to be completely safe. But we're going to be a hell of a lot safer than we are now if we can get more people vaccinated.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: What about the rate of hospitalizations at your hospitals right now? Are you seeing a rise there? And if you are, again, is it among the unvaccinated?

STEVEN CORWIN: The cases we're seeing now are clearly among the unvaccinated. And the cases-- meaning hospitalizations-- the cases where people have gotten an infection and have been double vaccinated have been mild and have not required hospitalization. So it really is the unvaccinated populations.

And although you're less likely to die if you're a younger person who's healthy, I can show you countless people in my hospital system that had no prior conditions, were young and healthy, and had either a significant hospitalization with long-term effects or died in the hospital.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: You know, doctor, I just want your thoughts, quickly, on another subject outside of COVID. We learned today that there are two large hospital systems, the Cleveland Clinic and the Mount Sinai Health System in New York, who are not going to administer Biogen's new Alzheimer's treatment. They say that the efficacy is just not there, they're wondering whether or not the FDA lowered its standards in approving this medicine. I'm wondering where your hospital stands on that medication.

STEVEN CORWIN: Well, first, let me say both hospital systems are terrific. And the leaders, Tom Mihaljevic of the Cleveland Clinic and Ted Davis of Mount Sinai are personal friends. And I think that they run terrific institutions.

We have significant doubts about it as well. In the past, those drugs that target the quote unquote "amyloid hypothesis" have not turned out to be efficacious. It's questionable of marginal benefit in terms of the efficacy of this drug at a significant cost. So we are evaluating it carefully.

But certainly, I think these decisions by Mount Sinai and Cleveland Clinic are something we're looking at very carefully. And we may move in the same direction.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, we hope to have you back to let us know what your decision is when you make one. Dr. Steven Corwin, Presbyterian Hospital CEO, thank you.