Distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine has been ‘more of an operational challenge' than it should have been: Doctor
Get Us PPE Co-Founder and Harvard Medical School Professor Dr. Ali Raja joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the outlook for COVID-19 as U.S. cases surpass 26 million.
Video Transcript
AKIKO FUJITA: More than 25 million Americans have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine so far. But the lack of supply and resistance to getting the vaccine is threatening to decelerate that pace. Let's bring in Dr. Ali Raja. He is Harvard Medical School professor and co-founder of Get Us PPE.
Dr. Raja, it's good to talk to you on this Monday. It feels like the race to get people vaccinated has become even more urgent in light of these new variants that have emerged, what more we're learning about them because they're much more infectious. What do you think needs to change in the vaccine process to pick up the pace?
ALI RAJA: Akiko, that's the main question that, I think, we're all focusing on right now. The vaccine data that we've all seen, including the data that we just got last week from J&J, is very promising. These vaccines have been shown, in all the studies that have been published, to keep people out of the hospital and to prevent deaths from COVID. But getting them into arms is turning into more of an operational challenge, quite honestly, than it should have. And we've had months to plan this. And the fact that we don't have, in many situations, streamlined methods of getting vaccinations done for mass populations, not just a little bit here and a little bit there, is concerning.
I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the states don't have a reliable supply of vaccine just yet. And I'm starting to see some really good plans from states around the country about how they're going to start vaccinating mass amounts of people. But we do have some good examples: West Virginia has done a great job, Maine has done a really good job, but they're not as populous as some of these larger states. So the big focus has to be operationalization of the vaccination process.
ZACH GUZMAN: And Doctor, I mean, obviously we want our process to go as smoothly as we're seeing in some other countries around the world. People are pointing at Israel right now for really doing a great job in getting their population vaccinated. But they also instituted some pretty strict lockdown measurements a couple of weeks before, starting at the end of the year, that included not traveling 1,000 meters beyond their homes, not going to other people's homes, also not traveling in or out of the country to protect against some of these variants. So I mean, how do you square away our upside, because they've seen cases drop there? What's our upside look like if we do roll out the vaccine as successfully, but also don't impose as strict measures on the lockdown side?
ALI RAJA: Zach, you're right. It's definitely both things. The vaccination process is what's going to get us to the end of this pandemic, but realistically we're not going to see the full effects of that until much more of the population is vaccinated, and that's not going to happen until the late spring or early summer. What's going to help us now are travel mandates, are mask mandates, and the CDC just announced a mask mandate that I hope we can talk about in just a few minutes.
But Israel has done an amazing job, because of the fact that they didn't just vaccinate people, but they prevented this post-holiday surge that we've all been wrestling with for the past month. Predictably, two weeks after Christmas and two weeks after New Year's, we saw surges of patients. And we've just started to see that decline over the past week or so. I'm afraid to see what happens as people continue to gather, as we see Valentine's Day get togethers, as we see more gatherings in the spring of people who aren't yet vaccinated, we'll continue to see those surges unless we can control the spread in addition to just vaccinating people.
AKIKO FUJITA: Doctor, there's also some debate about whether, in fact, the right people are being prioritized for this vaccine. Of course, it's shifted a bit since the initial rollout under the previous administration. Initially it was about healthcare workers, that didn't change, but also essential workers. And there's certainly a lot of essential workers out there who are saying we are the ones that are being exposed to this on a daily basis, and yet, we're not getting access to it, the elderly are being prioritized. Should that shift?
ALI RAJA: It's a tough call, Akiko. The fact is that elderly patients make up the majority of patients who get sick, and especially the majority of patients who die from COVID. And I hear the essential workers out there. I hear the teachers, I hear the grocery store workers, I hear everybody. And their pleas for vaccination should not fall on deaf ears. We should be vaccinating as many of them as possible. But I think the priority of getting our older patients, many, many of whom I've seen in the hospital and unfortunately died from this, vaccinated, really has to be a big push before we go much broader. Although, we need to go broad quickly.
ZACH GUZMAN: And Doctor, we can't overlook masking too. It sounds like you really want to talk about that. We saw those rules strengthened here. That's been an issue that President Biden has raised multiple times. So what's your take on maybe how those rules are changing now?
ALI RAJA: I think masking still, in addition to the vaccination, in addition to the hand washing, the not going out and traveling, vaccination is still the most important-- I'm sorry. You've got me thinking about vaccination.
[ZACH GUZMAN LAUGHS]
Masking is still the most important thing that we can all be doing. And the fact that the CDC just announced some regulation about the fact that there needs to be masks worn on all travel, so airplanes, trains, subway, starting at midnight tonight. This is such a great move. Now, there's some caveats here. Obviously, you don't have to wear a mask if you've got-- or your child doesn't have to wear a mask if he or she is under two years of age, and if you've got a medical condition that prevents the mask from having to be worn that it doesn't have to be worn.
That medical condition bit was really tricky when the airlines tried to do it. And eventually, the airlines actually said, no. You know what? If you just say you have a medical condition, that's not enough. And so what the CDC has said is that transportation companies may require medical documentation. They also may require COVID testing, which as we all know, is already required when you're flying into the US from outside of the country. So I really like the fact the mask mandate has started, and is going to start at midnight tonight. I'm worried about some of the nuts and bolts, especially for people who have a medical condition, but don't have medical documentation of it. But this is the right direction. And quite honestly, this is what we should have done many months ago.
ZACH GUZMAN: All right, Dr. Ali Raja, I appreciate you coming on here. Get Us PPE co-founder and Harvard Medical School professor. Thanks again for joining us. Appreciate it.
