Yahoo Finance Presents: CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky
On this episode of Yahoo Finance Presents, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, sat down with Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani to discuss misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines, COVID-19 booster shots, and more.
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Lots of new news coming out of the CDC, especially discussions on booster shots. Joining me now to discuss all of that and more, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. Dr. Walensky, thank you so much for joining me today.
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: Thanks so much for having me. Delighted to be here.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: So I want to talk to you of course, about the booster shots first, and the approval that came down in the guidance that came down late last week. Data seem to be at the crux of much of the discussion there. And I know that we relied heavily on external abroad data but also some real time data that we've been collecting here in the U.S.
You've talked about that two week real time collection. I know there's been a project in the works called the "Immunization Gateway." So put it all together for us. You know, we're looking for more information. Health experts are looking for data on breakthrough cases and demographics to go with it. Why don't we have that yet? And what's the CDC doing?
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: Right. Great. Thanks so much for that question. So first let me say, we're here to talk about boosters. But the first and most important thing that we continue to do is vaccinate those 70 million Americans who have not yet gotten their first shot. And we are not taking our eye off of that ball. So I just want to say that right up at the front that, that remains a really critical goal.
What we're doing now was an important first step in getting boosters to people to optimize their protection, who have already been vaccinated. So the announcement that we made last week was related to people who originally got a Pfizer series, and they're more than six months after their second Pfizer shot.
And our recommendations for boosting were for people over the age of 65, for people who are at high risk of severe disease because they have underlying medical conditions, and for people who are at high risk of disease by virtue of where they live or work. So high risk of severe disease, people who have diabetes, asthma, chronic lung disease, chronic heart disease, obesity.
And then people who live or work in high risk places, and those would be our health care workers, our grocery workers, our teachers, people who all of these groups originally got vaccines early on. We are relying on some data from-- from Israel and that is simply because they've been giving boosters for months now, weeks to months now.
And so they actually have been ahead of us in the Delta variant. And they have been ahead of us in actually giving these boosters. So we have a lot we could potentially learn from them because they've already given boosters to over several million people. We, of course, want to collaborate with them to see what they're finding in those booster doses that they've given.
We here at the CDC and around the country are looking at epidemiologic studies to assess vaccine effectiveness in preventing infections, hospitalizations, and death. And that is with and without, before we had enduring the Delta variant. We're continuing to follow those studies. These are tens of thousands of people that were following nationwide.
In some of these studies, we're actually screening people weekly so we can assess how our vaccines continue to work.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: So all of this is also happening at a time where we also fighting disinformation and misinformation, much more than any prior CDC director at a much more crucial time, really. I just wonder with all that's going on with the anti-vaxxers on one side, And then you have the need to-- to provide this information.
It seems like the CDC and quite honestly, the federal government at large is just not equipped to be in the places where this disinformation is disseminating. And it's all happening you know, at a time when we know that there's been under funding for a public health system. So how do you plan to tackle that right now?
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: You know, I think you're exactly right. I think there has been-- we have had an under-resourced public health infrastructure for a long time now, a diminished public health workforce over the last decade. And what we are doing now to combat this mis and disinformation is critically important because we know actually mis and disinformation gets propagated more regularly-- more frequently.
So we are working, rolling up our sleeves, and working at the community level with trusted messengers, with-- with influencers, and micro influencers, and getting out there with community based organizations, and faith based organizations.
We knew we were going to get to a period of time where mass vaccination sites people were not going to be coming up, rolling up their sleeves, and that we were going to have to get down to the community level. And that's the hard work we continue to do every single day.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: I know we've talked about those-- those efforts on the ground. And that's especially important when we're talking about the unvaccinated. And I know that there have been campaigns. You've talked about the work there.
But we recently saw an article from the New York Times that talks about how a large number of unvaccinated can be found in areas that voted for Trump, specifically States that voted for Trump. And I remember earlier this year, a discussion with Dr. Ashish Jha over at Brown University School of Public Health. And he had this to say about that idea.
DR. ASHISH JHA: Creates an identity around this that says, "oh, Trump voters don't want to get vaccinated." Well if you're a Trump voter, you think, "oh, maybe I don't want to get vaccinated." If the barriers to vaccinations are higher in the Trump counties, then we've taken access and barriers and converted that into a political identity.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: So you can hear there that he's talking really about you know, the idea of-- of condensing or giving them an excuse or an idea to lean on to then deny vaccines. Meanwhile, we're also hearing about frontline health workers, first responders, teachers, many low wage workers as well. I just wonder, how can you create messaging that targets them all?
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: You know, I think part of it-- well, first of all, I completely agree with Dr. Jha. But the other thing I would say is we can't characterize all people who haven't gotten the vaccine as the same. Certainly, survey studies have shown that people have different reasons for not yet getting vaccinated. And we have to address those people one at a time for the reasons that they have.
Do they want to see the safety data? While we've now vaccinated over six-- nearly 6 billion people around the globe, and over 180 million people in the United States. We have extraordinary safety data with these vaccines. Is it an access issue? Do they not really know how to get it? Do they know someone who got sick from getting the vaccine?
And what kind of information do we need to share with them? Certainly, pregnancy has been one area where people haven't been vaccinated. And this we really need to convey, you know. The risk of getting this vaccine during pregnancy, we now have the data is really quite low.
The risk of COVID during pregnancy is twofold increased risk of mechanical ventilation of being on a ventilator, increased risk to the mom, increased risk to the baby. So I think every single person has potentially unique reason for why he or she himself has not been vaccinated. And that's the hard work that we need to do.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Meanwhile, we have those who have been vaccinated and especially those abroad who want to come back and visit the U.S., and they know the travel guidance is changing next month. But there are some that may not be able to get in because they've been using other doses.
Those that might not have been authorized in the U.S. or even through the World Health Organization. And they know that cruise lines have also been pleading with the CDC to help change that or help alleviate the burden on those travelers. What can be done about that? Have you-- have you had a chance to think about that yet?
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: We are working closely. As you noted, the administration provided new updates for-- for what we will be doing for travel, probably starting in early November. And we are actively looking at the-- the-- certainly, we do want to have as many people vaccinated as they come into the United States. And we're working on the policies right now to assess what we'll be doing in early November.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: OK. So stay tuned, basically. We heard from both the Pfizer and the Moderna CEO in the past week or two, saying that next year is likely the quote, unquote, "end of the pandemic" or when life will return to normal. Where do you stand on that?
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: I've certainly been humbled by this virus over the last 18 months. So I think a lot of what we need to do in order to end this pandemic is to unify as a country, and as a world to fight against the common enemy, which is the virus itself. To do the things that we need to do to protect ourselves, get vaccinated and our communities, to wear masks until we do.
Once we have really high levels of vaccination, and we have lower levels of disease, I can start thinking about what this looks like towards the end. And boy, do I look forward to that.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: I'm sure. And we all do.
[LAUGHTER]
Let's move on to how the last week's meeting you know, just the process how we got through the boosters because we're going to see around 2 and 3 with Moderna and Johnson Johnson. I just wonder, I know that there have been some unflattering comparisons to the prior administration, which had more of a top down approach, and there were some conflicts that came up.
We saw that President Joe Biden announced broad access to boosters back in August. And since then the FDA and the CDC have narrowed that access slightly, just based on the data and as needed. I just wonder, you know, with-- with all of that happening in the background, do you feel differently about the White House announcing it now in hindsight or do you feel like that was the right move?
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: You know, back in August, we at the CDC started publishing data that demonstrated that our vaccine effectiveness against infection was starting to wane. And I think the American public in the context of those publications needed to know that we were going to stay on top of this as an administration.
We were going to stay on top of the virus, and get ahead of the virus, and we were planning for that. And in the context of that planning, we were always going to follow the science. So fast forward to where we are today, the-- the scientists at the FDA advisory panel max, the FDA put forward their authorization, the scientists at the CDC met.
All of these in very public, transparent, scientific based meetings, and then we put forward our recommendation on Friday.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: When all of that proceed-- well, the White House proceeded. That was the question. So do you think that they kind of jumped the gun in announcing it or they should not have announced it?
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: You know, the announcement actually said that we would follow the science and that's exactly what we did in this announcement with these recommendations. So I think that they needed to know that we were planning, and that planning happened. And then when the science was available to provide for boosters for the people who the recommendations and the authorizations came forward, that's exactly what we did.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: OK. You told the Senate committee back in July, and this goes to the conversation about global supply and access, you told them that quote "the CDC is working around the world with global partners, and many low and middle income countries to support the planning, implementation, and evaluation of COVID 19 vaccine programs."
We know now that Pfizer doses require colder storage, and Moderna is out of production for the year, and Johnson & Johnson has faced some setbacks. Meanwhile, the companies are not agreeing to share intellectual property. So all of this put together, how is that partnership exactly working, aside from the fact that we are shipping out a billion doses or committing to?
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: Yes. And in fact, it's continuing actively. These are active conversations. Just last week, we committed another $500 million doses. So that now we know that here in the United States, for every one dose we've given, we are giving three doses across the globe.
And we're encouraging other people around the world to continue those deescalation of that commitment as well so that we can vaccinate the world. Because quite honestly, until we have vaccines around the world, no one will be protected here as well.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: And a final quick question for you on mix and match, why aren't we doing that if other countries are?
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: We haven't yet seen all of the signs that we would like to see in order to mix and match. Those are forthcoming. They actually are happening right now. We're starting to see some of the mix and match data. And as soon as we have those data to present both to the FDA and to the CDC, we'll have recommendations there as well.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: We'll be waiting to hear for that one also. All right, well, we'll have to leave it there but hopefully we can get you back again. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a pleasure as always.
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: Thank you so much.
