Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. All right, So,
Speaker 1: as we were talking earlier, tomorrow is the second anniversary
Speaker 1: of the COVID Vaccine meeting. If you can remember when
Speaker 1: that was the day two years ago that the first
Speaker 1: person in the the US to get that very very first vaccine,
Speaker 1: COVID vaccine, was someone right here in New York State,
Speaker 1: just outside New York City, and that person Dr Sandra Lindsay,
Speaker 1: vice President of Public health Advocacy at Northwell Health. She
Speaker 1: enjoins us right now on the phone from New Hyde Park.
Speaker 1: It's good to have you back with us, Dr Lindsay.
Speaker 1: How are you. I am doing sometatastic. Thank you very
Speaker 1: much for having me on. You know, as I was
Speaker 1: preparing for this, I was thinking back to what things
Speaker 1: were like two years ago, and it's pretty remarkable because
Speaker 1: even though we are still dealing with COVID, we're certainly
Speaker 1: dealing with it in a different way, and we definitely
Speaker 1: have the tools to go out and face the world
Speaker 1: in a safer way. I'm talking about vaccines here. At
Speaker 1: the same time, though, we're seeing enough ticking cases. We're
Speaker 1: seeing mask uses, mask use inside coming back. How are
Speaker 1: you feeling about things right now? I'm I'm feeling very
Speaker 1: hopeful as I did UM on that day two years
Speaker 1: ago when I got vaccinated. We have made tremendous progress.
Speaker 1: We're able to you know, enjoy the things we love.
Speaker 1: We're able to hug again and gather again. UM. And
Speaker 1: I still feel very hopeful. Um, despite the upticking cases,
Speaker 1: not to the extent that it was two years ago
Speaker 1: or a year ago. UM, we're seeing fluent rs V
Speaker 1: on the rise. But we have flu vaccines and we
Speaker 1: now have uh, you know, a merit of COVID vaccines,
Speaker 1: we have boosters. UM. We just need people to understand
Speaker 1: that COVID is not finished with us yet, and so
Speaker 1: we still need to act responsibly and to get ourselves protected.
Speaker 1: And for those who are watching on YouTube and I
Speaker 1: blew our critic, we're just showing the footage and I
Speaker 1: remember seeing it on all of the news station is
Speaker 1: when you got that shot. I mean it was a
Speaker 1: big deal. And I think, you know, started a flow
Speaker 1: of prominent people, whether it was celebrities, politicians, the president.
Speaker 1: UM are Actually I don't think, I don't I don't
Speaker 1: think at the time it was President Trump. No, it
Speaker 1: was President Biden. Well, no, President Biden was President Biden. Okay,
Speaker 1: see I'm in like a time work, um, but it
Speaker 1: was you really set a tone. Tell us though, what
Speaker 1: was going through your mind when you were getting that shot.
Speaker 1: You know at that time, you know, having gone through
Speaker 1: the pandemic and dealing with this day today just kind
Speaker 1: of hardship, grief and suffering. I was just ready to
Speaker 1: get vaccinated. I felt like I was walking around with
Speaker 1: the world on my shoulders and this was a ray
Speaker 1: of hope and I just could not wait, um to
Speaker 1: get vaccinated. Mind you, I didn't go into this blindly.
Speaker 1: Right soon I heard that vaccines were being developed, I
Speaker 1: started reading up on everything that I could get my
Speaker 1: hand on that was published that was credible. I spoke
Speaker 1: to my physicians, I spoke to people that I trusted
Speaker 1: before I got to that point. So when I got
Speaker 1: in the room, I was at ease. I was ready.
Speaker 1: Cameras around here and lights and I was paying I
Speaker 1: was I was not paying attention to all of that,
Speaker 1: And at that point I didn't know I was going
Speaker 1: to be the first one. I just wanted to get vaccinated.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to instill public confidence that look, we've
Speaker 1: gone through a difficult time at dark time, and now
Speaker 1: is our time to get out of this and to
Speaker 1: fight back. And I just want to make mention of
Speaker 1: a study that was published today that was done by
Speaker 1: researchers from the Commonwealth Fund as well as Yale School
Speaker 1: of Public Health that found that of the sixty five
Speaker 1: six d and FI to five million doses of vaccine
Speaker 1: administered to Americans in the past two years, that has
Speaker 1: stopped eighteen million additional hospitalizations and three million additional debts,
Speaker 1: saving the country approximately one trillion dollars. It's pretty remarkable marketable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's absolutely remarkable. I should say, Caroline, I did you know,
Speaker 1: going the way back machine, take out our calculators and
Speaker 1: did the math, and we came to the conclusion that
Speaker 1: if we go two years ago back to two years
Speaker 1: ago today, we would still have President Trump in office.
Speaker 1: But President elect Biden was the one who you know,
Speaker 1: publicly got a shot U during that time. So h
Speaker 1: it's hard to remember. It's been a time work. When
Speaker 1: we were thinking about it was two years ago that
Speaker 1: first vaccine. It's hard to imagine. I mean, I'm five
Speaker 1: shots in terms of five shots, and we were just
Speaker 1: trying to keep make sense of it. No, I'm four shots.
Speaker 1: Oh you're four. Sorry, I'm five shots in UM. But
Speaker 1: Dr Linday, this is the world we are in when
Speaker 1: you got the shot. I'm assuming they were people in
Speaker 1: your world, in your orbit, personally professionally who were still
Speaker 1: maybe going into it uncomfortable getting the shot. Did it
Speaker 1: change their mind? Oh? Absolutely, And so many people have
Speaker 1: reached out to me. UM. Just this past weekend, I
Speaker 1: was doing my Christmas shopping and this lady came up
Speaker 1: to me and she just started saying, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. The entire store kind of turned around and
Speaker 1: looked at her, like what is she talking about. She's like,
Speaker 1: thank you for you know, just instill in the confidence
Speaker 1: in me and giving me the courage to go on
Speaker 1: and get vaccinated. I've had people come up to me
Speaker 1: and say I had made up my mind that I
Speaker 1: was never ever going to get vaccinated, and just seeing
Speaker 1: you they're calmly taking the vaccine and realizing that despite
Speaker 1: what social media was putting out that twenty four hours later,
Speaker 1: I was in an ic you that you're still here
Speaker 1: with us you're still using your platform to advert hate
Speaker 1: and to encourage people to do their own research, you know,
Speaker 1: ask the questions that you want answered. Speak to your
Speaker 1: trusted people in your life, but do something. It's good
Speaker 1: to hear. Dr lindsay that you have You've had a
Speaker 1: positive experience over the last couple of years when it
Speaker 1: comes to people who have approached you. But I'm also wondering,
Speaker 1: in the first few hours, the first few days, what
Speaker 1: you experienced online, And because we have heard so much
Speaker 1: about the way that people have been attacked online for
Speaker 1: their views and just for for stuff they've done, what
Speaker 1: did you experience? Yeah? So, um, you know, after the
Speaker 1: first couple of hours after getting the vaccine, perhaps minutes, um,
Speaker 1: there were people online that we're saying that I was stupid.
Speaker 1: Did I not hear about the Tuskegee study, that I
Speaker 1: was being used as a guinea pig? Um, I'm just
Speaker 1: another example. Um, I'm being paid for this. I'm a
Speaker 1: paid spokesperson for this, none of which is true. But
Speaker 1: you know I don't get into fights online. Instead, I
Speaker 1: just turned that around into you know, the positive. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm well educated. I know about the Tuskege study. But
Speaker 1: here is what I want you to know about the
Speaker 1: vaccine and how I came to my decision about getting vaccinated.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm curious to at your hospital. North wall
Speaker 1: Is is huge, uh in New York State, and I
Speaker 1: do wonder are you seeing now an uptick in COVID
Speaker 1: cases again or is it a case of maybe there's cases,
Speaker 1: but they're not resulting in an uptick in hospitalizations. So
Speaker 1: since the beginning of the pandemic, we have been very busy,
Speaker 1: to say the least. We've taken care of over three
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty thousand patients, performed more than three million
Speaker 1: diagnostic tests for the virus, and have administered more than
Speaker 1: seven hundred and fifty thousands vaccinations. We are seeing an uptick,
Speaker 1: but not to the extent that we were two years ago,
Speaker 1: and we don't have our ic use overcrowded like we
Speaker 1: were two years ago. So far far less a fraction
Speaker 1: less than where we were two years ago. It cannot
Speaker 1: be compared, and that is thanks to vaccinations. It would
Speaker 1: have been in a much different place had we not
Speaker 1: have these vaccines on board. Dr Linda, it's pretty incredible
Speaker 1: to see, not what you've done over your career which
Speaker 1: has spent close to thirty years, but just over the
Speaker 1: last two years when it comes to vaccine advocacy, you
Speaker 1: were given the I should say, the Presidential Medal of
Speaker 1: Freedom by President Biden earlier this year. Just in the
Speaker 1: last minute that we have with you, tell us about
Speaker 1: that experience and and how you felt that is just
Speaker 1: a real I couldn't believe when I got the call.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a prank call until I checked
Speaker 1: my email and saw that this was real because it
Speaker 1: was followed up with an email, And you know, immediately
Speaker 1: I just thought about what it meant for me and
Speaker 1: my family, which is proud, but also what it means
Speaker 1: for people that I identify with immigrants, woman, black woman,
Speaker 1: Caribbean woman, Jamaican and to think that, you know, in
Speaker 1: my earlier years, all I dreamt of was becoming an
Speaker 1: earth no one ever dreams of. Okay, I want to
Speaker 1: get the Presidential Medal of Freedom one at least not me,
Speaker 1: but here I here, I was getting this high honor
Speaker 1: bestowed upon me. And I really just share this with
Speaker 1: everyone that I mentioned that I identify with, along with
Speaker 1: my health care workers as well and my nurses and
Speaker 1: now your id Bagine scrubs are at the National Museum
Speaker 1: of American History at the Smithsonian. It's it's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1: Dr Lindsay, always great to speak with you, to thank
Speaker 1: you so much for taking the time and joining us.
Speaker 1: Dr Sandra Lindsay, Vice President of Public Health Advocacy at
Speaker 1: north Well Health