WHO reports record 100k new coronavirus cases in one day

New York Emergency Physician and Founder & CEO of Advancing Health Equity Dr. Uché Blackstock joins Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith and Anjalee Khemlani to discuss the latest developments surrounding the coronavirus, as U.S. cases surpass 1.5 million, according to John Hopkins.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: I want to turn to the latest coronavirus. The World Health Organization saying that the number of newly reported coronavirus cases worldwide hit a daily record with more than 100,000 new cases in just the last 24 hours.

So for more on this, we have Dr. Uché Blackstock, New York emergency physician and founder CEO of Advancing Health Equity. And we also have Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani joining the conversation. And Dr. Blackstock, let me just get your reaction to what we heard from the WHO today. What does this tell us about how long of a way we have to go in this pandemic?

UCHE BLACKSTOCK: No, that's a great question. As we can see from the data that was released today, that we have a significant way to go. We're going to be in this for at least two years or until there is a vaccine, so we're going to need to adapt to this way of life.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Dr. Blackstock, I know that we talked about antibody testing, which is also another sort of key thing that we're waiting for. We're waiting for that vaccine, and we saw what happened yesterday with that news. But aside from that, it seems like the testing has also been something that we need to focus on. So I know that we talked about how it is being used versus being used more for surveillance reasons. Can you explain that?

UCHE BLACKSTOCK: Right. So we know that widespread testing is necessary to mitigate the spread of the virus, right? We need to know who is infected. We also need to know who is not infected. If people are infected, they need to be isolated.

But the problem is that right now, we have both PCR testing-- that's a diagnostic test-- and then we have antibody testing. And we have a reopening. And we have a lot of people going back to work. And we have employers actually asking for clearance for their employees and wanting to use these PCR and antibody tests. And that's not really what they were made for.

As I mentioned, a PCR test is they really the want, the gold standard one, the one that we're using for surveillance. And the antibody testing is the one that we are using to measure seroprevalence, to see how much the population is-- carries antibodies to coronavirus.

And so they really shouldn't be used for individual decisions because there's so much we don't know. We don't know how-- if the immunity is partial or full immunity. We also don't know how long that immunity lasts for. So, you know, even in my practice in urgent care, I've been getting a lot of requests from employees who are going back to work saying that their employers are requiring testing results to return. And so we really have to think about whether or not we're using these testing results properly.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Absolutely, and tied to that, obviously, one of the big sort of end goal things is the vaccine like you mentioned. We know that we saw the news and how the markets reacted to it. But in the medical profession, how is that news received? And what are you looking for in terms of when to judge that a vaccine is likely to be available?

UCHE BLACKSTOCK: Sure, so, you know, in that news among mostly health care is received pretty lightly. We know that most vaccine trials require significant number of phases. So phase one, phase two, phase three. And then phase three will involve tens of thousands of patients. And so right now, the Moderna vaccine was tried in about eight individuals with favorable results, which is great.

However, you know, we need to test it on tens of thousands of people. So we can see if there are any ill side effects of the vaccine. Because one thing that we've seen with prior vaccines is that some side effects have actually discouraged people from actually wanting to take the vaccine in the future. So we need much more rigorous trials in terms of the vaccine.

And the good thing is that we have people all across the world. We have companies that are racing at warp speed to create this vaccine. And so I think what will happen is we'll have probably a number of vaccines available, just not anytime soon.

SEANA SMITH: Dr. Blackstock, going over that, it was interesting. There was a recent report how China's new outbreak is showing that signs of the virus could be changing. I guess, what are your thoughts on this? And how does this complicate the efforts to try and help mitigate the spread?

UCHE BLACKSTOCK: Right, and so one thing about vaccines, vaccines are usually more effective in viruses that mutate very slowly. And I think a lot of the data that we've had so far on coronavirus was that it did mutate slowly. So this news out of China is definitely very concerning. Because the more quickly a virus mutates, you know, you'll have to actually develop different vaccines on a yearly basis like we do with the flu right now.

And so that's something that we're definitely going to keep track of. And hopefully what we're seeing perhaps is just, you know, maybe long term symptoms that coronavirus patients are having because that news could potentially be very, very worrisome if the virus is, in fact, mutating more quickly than we thought.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: And how does that affect what you're looking for in terms of that second wave or that resurgence? And are the state reopenings-- you know, are you preparing for maybe more cases to come in, in a couple of weeks?

UCHE BLACKSTOCK: You know, I think that'll vary from state to state. I think it depends on what restrictions are left in place. You know, I'm based in New York City. And right now, we still have, you know, significant amount of restrictions in place and probably are going to have it for the next few months.

But I think other states that are reopening definitely will see some surges in the number of cases as we go along. And so it's really going to be about putting out that fire, small fires, but also ensuring that it doesn't reach the apex that it has reached in a number of states already.

SEANA SMITH: Dr. Blackstock, the recent numbers that we have, 4.9 million confirmed cases worldwide, here in the US, 1 and 1/2 million, I guess, how much do you think the official numbers are likely understated at this point?

UCHE BLACKSTOCK: Oh, they're absolutely understated. And one of the reasons why they're understated is because we're not testing widely, right? So especially in this country, we're not testing widely. So we don't even really know the exact number of cases of coronavirus, as well as the number of deaths caused by coronavirus.

I think you could say that probably for a good number of countries that are reporting this data. I think that when once we have the full data, we really will be sadly surprised by the number of people who have been impacted by this. And I'm very sure that the numbers will be significantly larger than the numbers that we have now.

SEANA SMITH: Dr. Uché Blackstock and our own Anjalee Khemlani, thank you both for joining today.

UCHE BLACKSTOCK: Thank you for having me.