Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Carol Masser and I'm Tim Stanivak. Welcome to the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week Extra. It's our weekly podcast, and this is
Speaker 1: where we highlight one of our favorite interviews, one of
Speaker 1: the important interviews of the week, or just one of
Speaker 1: those interviews that it's a topic that everyone has to
Speaker 1: stay on top of. And one of those topics, of course,
Speaker 1: is everything that is happening with COVID nineteen and the coronavirus.
Speaker 1: And this week, we unfortunately saw more surges in COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen cases and deaths. We hit another daily death record.
Speaker 1: A voice to help talk us through it all is
Speaker 1: Dr Chris Buyer, Professor in Public Health and Human Rights
Speaker 1: at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. We're
Speaker 1: still seeing rising cases and of course a tumultuous day
Speaker 1: for our country, but also a record for COVID deaths
Speaker 1: in the country. Um and we are expecting still as
Speaker 1: as we had predicted, the post holiday season surge to continue.
Speaker 1: We're in this very very challenging moment where we do
Speaker 1: have a way forward, and that of course is the
Speaker 1: COVID vaccines that have emergency use authorization now, but we're
Speaker 1: not going to be able to immunize enough people to
Speaker 1: start to really blunt this curve. And the next few
Speaker 1: weeks and probably well into February are going to be
Speaker 1: enormously challenging. You say, we're not going to be able
Speaker 1: to You say, your doctor, we're not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to immunize enough people. Do you mean in the next
Speaker 1: few weeks do you mean this year? I mean to
Speaker 1: blunt this current enormous way. So how will we see
Speaker 1: this wave go down? Well, first of all, I think
Speaker 1: we have to stick to the basics, right Um, we
Speaker 1: have to really continue with mass wearing, with social distancing,
Speaker 1: with handwashing. As hard as it is to say, vigilant
Speaker 1: people are going to have to try and do that.
Speaker 1: We do need to ramp up both manufacture and distribution
Speaker 1: of the two approved vaccines we have, and of course
Speaker 1: we have more vaccines in the pipeline. But as I'm
Speaker 1: sure you know, we we've really had a slow start
Speaker 1: to the immunization programs and a number of the states
Speaker 1: really faced challenges. Yeah, the bottleneck is not in the
Speaker 1: manufacturing of these right now. The bottleneck is in the
Speaker 1: distribution we have a Bloomberg vaccine tracker, and it shows
Speaker 1: that a very small portion, relatively number of vaccines that
Speaker 1: have been distributed have actually been shot into the arms
Speaker 1: of people. That's right too, That's absolutely right, and it's
Speaker 1: it's it's an enormous tragedy really, So Dr Byro. You know,
Speaker 1: this is interesting because we've talked about this a lot
Speaker 1: at home to about you know, we saw this with
Speaker 1: the November election. We had sports teams, you know, step
Speaker 1: up and say, you know what, use our stadiums used
Speaker 1: so that we can bring people in get the vote out.
Speaker 1: Have you know, more polling places. I'm hearing conversations about that,
Speaker 1: are already actions about that of taking some of these
Speaker 1: giant places and setting them up as vaccine sites. Is
Speaker 1: that what we need to kind of really get it
Speaker 1: out into the system. And at the same time that
Speaker 1: makes me a little nervous about large groups of people
Speaker 1: that might have COVID going out there for the vaccine
Speaker 1: and just got about fifty seconds and then we'll come
Speaker 1: back and talk some more. Oh no, actually, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: we can keep going my bat Okay, Well, we really
Speaker 1: need a coordinated effort um and of course we we
Speaker 1: have an allocation strategy around healthcare workers, around the elderly,
Speaker 1: in in UH congregate housing facilities, the staff of those facilities. UM.
Speaker 1: But what we've seen, unfortunately, is that the vaccines are
Speaker 1: moving to the states and out to places where people
Speaker 1: can be immunized too slowly to unevenly. We've we've seen,
Speaker 1: unfortunately the potential for vaccines to expire without being used.
Speaker 1: That's a great loss. UH. And of course we have
Speaker 1: to remember that with these two messenger RNA vaccines Maderna
Speaker 1: and visor UH. Viser in particular has very challenging distribution
Speaker 1: UH features because it has to be kept super cold.
Speaker 1: The low minus eight. The MODERNA vaccine is a little
Speaker 1: easier to use, but they're both challenging to use and
Speaker 1: they really do require very careful management. UM and UH.
Speaker 1: And of course, you know, what we have is not
Speaker 1: a national strategy, but fifty different states strategies, and many
Speaker 1: of the governors are going in their own way. You
Speaker 1: saw that Florida may have the decision not to prioritize
Speaker 1: healthcare workers and instead go with the elderly, but without
Speaker 1: preparing so long lines and people waiting overnight. That's not
Speaker 1: a national strategy. So my gut says, nothing's going to
Speaker 1: change until we have a new administration. What are your
Speaker 1: hopes that from day one Joe Biden and team do
Speaker 1: in terms of getting this out to people. Well, the
Speaker 1: incoming administration Biden Harris does have a national strategy on COVID.
Speaker 1: It's been up on their website. They have articulated that
Speaker 1: this is the principal priority. They're putting together a great team.
Speaker 1: Dr Fauci, of course, is going to stay on as
Speaker 1: a senior scientific advisor. The CDC director who's proposed for
Speaker 1: Shell Willinsky, is an outstanding leader. Um, So I think
Speaker 1: we're we're very optimistic that this is an administration that's
Speaker 1: going to let the science lead and that is going
Speaker 1: to try and have a national strategy. But they're inheriting
Speaker 1: a rollout that's already underway and problematic, and I think
Speaker 1: it's going to be really challenging to streamline this, to
Speaker 1: make it coherent, uh and and to get it working.
Speaker 1: The President elect is committed to a hundred million people
Speaker 1: being vaccinated in the first hundred days. So that's not
Speaker 1: a hundred million doses, that's a hundred million immunizations. About
Speaker 1: fifty million people with these two dose vaccines. Well, it
Speaker 1: was looking realistic when he made a campaign promise. With
Speaker 1: the rollout right now, I think it's going to be
Speaker 1: enormously challenge. When when do you feel like things start
Speaker 1: to get normal, When do we start to be able
Speaker 1: to kind of reopen life as we know it and
Speaker 1: love it. We will have about fifty million vaccines available,
Speaker 1: so enough for twenty million people by the end of
Speaker 1: this month. February, March, and April are likely to still
Speaker 1: be periods where we have more people who want to
Speaker 1: be immunized than we have vaccines. What we're thinking is
Speaker 1: that by June or July one we will have enough
Speaker 1: vaccine for every American who wants one. Uh, and that
Speaker 1: that is going to mean that really by the end
Speaker 1: of the second quarter of one we should really be
Speaker 1: seeing a change in life getting back to normal. We
Speaker 1: have trials planned for the pediatric vaccines. Right now, we
Speaker 1: only have one that's the the fisor vaccine that can
Speaker 1: go down to age sixteen. But we also really need
Speaker 1: to do that work and be sure that we have
Speaker 1: vaccines for children and infants, for pregnant women, for lactating women.
Speaker 1: So we still have some work to do, but but
Speaker 1: the fall of one should look a lot different than
Speaker 1: the spring dr buyer. One unfortunate element that we've seen
Speaker 1: with the vaccine rollout has been skepticism of the American population.
Speaker 1: Not everybody, but people who say, including healthcare workers, that
Speaker 1: they don't want this vaccine. Have you received a vaccine yet?
Speaker 1: I have not because I am a researcher and I
Speaker 1: don't do direct patient care at Hopkins. We're we're not prioritized. Um.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm hopeful that that I'll be in one of
Speaker 1: the next groups. Uh, and I'm expecting to get get
Speaker 1: a vaccine probably in February. How do we fix the
Speaker 1: messaging here? I think one thing that's very encouraging. You
Speaker 1: may have seen there was a recent Kaiser Family Foundation
Speaker 1: poll that showed that vaccine acceptability, at least in that
Speaker 1: poll was up around That's better than it's been, so
Speaker 1: we're going in the right direction. I think it's very
Speaker 1: important for healthcare workers, for political leaders like Biden Harris,
Speaker 1: who both have been publicly immunized, to step up and
Speaker 1: and model the behavior that we want to see. We also,
Speaker 1: I'm working in the COVID Vaccine Prevention Network we've had
Speaker 1: a big faith based initiative to try and address these
Speaker 1: issues for African Americans in particular, that community unfortunately seems
Speaker 1: to have some of the highest rates of vaccine hesitancy
Speaker 1: and skepticism. UH and UH, and we're working hard with,
Speaker 1: for example, African American physicians and networks to try and
Speaker 1: improve uh people's positive sense of the benefits of these vaccines.
Speaker 1: They have very high efficacy ninety four and uh, they're
Speaker 1: very safe as far as we can see so far.
Speaker 1: We're following everybody in the trials who has been in
Speaker 1: these vaccine trials for up to two years to look
Speaker 1: at longer term safety. But UH, I think you know what,
Speaker 1: what we're hopeful about is that as more and more
Speaker 1: people get immunized, the folks who are saying right now,
Speaker 1: I'm not ready, uh, will will move towards getting immunized.
Speaker 1: For most Americans, it's gonna be probably May or June
Speaker 1: before they really can just decide if they want a vaccine.
Speaker 1: So so the folks who are hesitant should wait and look.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, that's we're seeing, you know. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting to say this and I hate to do this.
Speaker 1: In like our last couple of minutes. But there is
Speaker 1: a story on the Bloomberg. It's an opinion piece, but
Speaker 1: it asked the question who's on the hook of vaccines
Speaker 1: go wrong? And it's basically, you know, given the breakneck
Speaker 1: pace of production, there are very few answers about what
Speaker 1: manufacturers and governments are ultimately responsible for. God forbid something
Speaker 1: should go wrong. And forgive me because I'm an optimist
Speaker 1: and I believe in the science of this vaccine. But
Speaker 1: as you said, you guys the medical community, well, we're
Speaker 1: gonna be tracking people longer term to see if there
Speaker 1: is any longer term impact because we still don't, to
Speaker 1: be fair, to be honest, we still don't know. Well,
Speaker 1: that's right, and we need We are accumulating safety data
Speaker 1: from the people in the trials and the people who've
Speaker 1: been immunized. Every day. We have a vaccine adverse Events
Speaker 1: reporting system that the CDC is managing. Um. Certainly everybody
Speaker 1: in the healthcare systems who are getting immunized are being
Speaker 1: tracked through those health systems. Uh, and we need to
Speaker 1: follow this very carefully. I think it's important to remember
Speaker 1: that there are always some risks associated with any medication,
Speaker 1: any vaccine, any biomedical intervention. We all know that writing
Speaker 1: is zero risk, but the flip side of that is
Speaker 1: the risk of getting COVID. Learning more and more about
Speaker 1: this disease is that that you know this, this has
Speaker 1: the potential to really kill you or alter your life.
Speaker 1: That was Dr Chris Buyer, Professor in Public Health and
Speaker 1: Human Rights at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Speaker 1: Health and of course the Bloomberg School of Public Health,
Speaker 1: supported by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Up and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Philanthropy. You've been listening to Bloomberg Business Week Extra,
Speaker 1: be sure to listen to Bloomberg Business Week Radio, air
Speaker 1: live Monday through Friday at two pm Wall Street Time
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol Masser and I'm Tim Stenerberg.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg