Doctor: I would ‘discourage’ getting booster shot different from the vaccine you received
Dr. Adrian Burrowes, Family Medicine Physician &CFP Physicians Group, CEO, joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the latest on the coronavirus pandemic.
Video Transcript
ADAM SHAPIRO: Speaking of weekends, we've got the latest on COVID-19. And we want to discuss what is happening with COVID-19. We're going to bring into the stream-- I don't believe-- do we have Anjalee? No, we don't. We have Dr. Burrowes. Dr. Burrowes is joining us-- excuse me, I have lost it here.
Dr. Adrian Burrowes is a family medicine physician and CFP Physicians Group CEO. It's good to have you here, joining us from Orlando, Florida. I want to get right to the big headline. The CDC saying that children who are vaccinated when they go back to school this fall don't have to wear masks. But not all children are going to be vaccinated. Is this going to cause some confusion?
ADRIAN BURROWES: Yeah, I definitely think so. Right now, we've got children 12 and up that are eligible for vaccination. So we're going to have a large proportion of our elementary school children and some of our middle school children that have not been vaccinated yet. And we're going to be having different rules for different classrooms. So I do think there'll be a little bit of confusion. I do agree in terms of from a safety standpoint that if they're vaccinated students and vaccinated teachers, that they can be in the same room probably without masks on. But I anticipate a lot of confusion when school starts back.
ADAM SHAPIRO: Are you getting questions or your colleagues getting questions from parents about what's the best way that I can protect my kids, but also protect the kids around them?
ADRIAN BURROWES: Yes, I've told parents that children have done very, very well, both with vaccination and ones who have acquired COVID-19. But of course, they have lots of concerns. I have lots of patients who are teachers, and the teachers are actually much more concerned than the parents are. Because they're concerned about, of course, their own health risks as the population comes back, and a lot of them are probably coming back without masks on.
ADAM SHAPIRO: Where do we stand? There was the story out of Israel that the Pfizer, BioNTech vaccine does offer efficacy, but at a diminished capacity against the Delta variant. But it does prevent hospitalization. What was it they said? About 93%. And then we get the news that Pfizer is going to approach the FDA for approval for a booster shot. Those of us who are vaccinated, what should we make of all of this? It sounds a little confusing if you're not a doctor.
ADRIAN BURROWES: Well, it actually sounds confusing even when you are a doctor. So I totally understand where the layperson would be confused. So right now, Pfizer is thinking of the future. They are thinking about where they anticipate this going, moving forward. Whereas the CDC and the FDA are thinking about right now. Right now, vaccinated Americans are doing fairly well and probably don't need a booster.
Pfizer is thinking, what's going to happen six months from now? What's going to happen a year from now? And they think that as they continue to watch people moving forward, that there may be some waning immunity moving forward. And they're trying to get ahead of that by trying to anticipate it by offering another vaccine. But right now, the evidence doesn't support that, at least in this country.
ADAM SHAPIRO: In your part of the world, Orlando, Florida, do you have concerns as a doctor? Because so many people will be traveling to the theme parks, just to get away. Some will not be vaccinated. Are you already starting to see perhaps infection rates rise there? Or is it still pretty much contained?
ADRIAN BURROWES: So that's a great question. So if you're asking about the overall picture, we've definitely done better lately with COVID-19. However, if I compare our admission rate from June the 1st to the July the 1st, and then, of course, what's happened since July the 4th weekend, we're up to 309 in-patients with-- that are inside our hospital with COVID. And that's a huge jump in the numbers from where we were.
So we've had a more than double increase in our hospitalizations as a result of COVID. Majority of the people-- actually, the overwhelming majority, more than 95% of the in-patients are people who are unvaccinated. And a good portion of those people have the Delta variant. So we are definitely seeing a rise, mostly in the unvaccinated population. So I do have concerns living here in Orlando as the summer moves forward.
ADAM SHAPIRO: The other thing about the vaccinations, I've been hearing conversations among some of my peers who I had assumed were educated men and women that maybe they just might on their own just go get a booster shot of a different vaccine than the one they got. And my reaction to that was I don't think it works that way. But correct me if I'm wrong. Is that a waste of time, or should they?
ADRIAN BURROWES: So that's actually-- there's been a lot of talk about that specifically with outside the country for people who have had the AstraZeneca vaccine taking up the issue with Pfizer. And then I've seen a lot of online blogs and things like that where people are trying to get a booster from an alternative vaccine. Not well studied, obviously, not something that I would support or recommend. Again, if you happen to have a side effect, you're not going to know which vaccine it was from, your current or your former vaccine. So I would definitely discourage people from doing that.
ADAM SHAPIRO: And just finally, the protocols that you and the people around you are following right now, do you find it cumbersome? Do you still wear a mask? Is it time to say, hey, stop wearing masks on airplanes and that kind of thing? Or are you going to keep wearing a mask long after all this?
ADRIAN BURROWES: So that's a great question. I think that for me personally, I continue to wear a mask in my business. We still require masks per the CDC guidelines. I think that even as we move forward and we get better control over COVID-19, I think you're always going to see some people, some portion of the population always wearing masks, given what we've seen as time moves forward. I'm hopeful that more people will get vaccinated. And as we move forward with increased vaccination, hopefully, we can all get rid of the masks moving forward.
ADAM SHAPIRO: All right, really appreciate your sharing some time with us. Dr. Adrian Burrowes is family medicine physician and CFP Physicians Group CEO. Good to see you.
