Dr. Ben Weston, Medical Director of the COVID-19 Emergency Operations Center in Milwaukee joined Yahoo Finance Live to share his thoughts on adding another COVID-19 vaccine to the US market and how it would affect the vaccine’s launch. .
Video transcription
SEANA SMITH: And Dr. Weston, it’s great to talk to you again. So let’s start where [INAUDIBLE] ended there. And that, of course, is the fact that we already have three vaccines in the United States. We have Moderna, Pfizer and J&J. Now we have this good news from AstraZeneca. I’m just curious about your thoughts. And how big do you expect AstraZeneca to be here, just in terms of vaccinating Americans?
BEN WESTON: Yes, thanks for getting me back. I think a fourth vaccine would be absolutely welcome. We saw an increase in production from Pfizer, Moderna and J&J. But surely having one more vaccine on the market, an effective vaccine, a safe vaccine would definitely be welcome as we move forward and try to vaccinate as many people as possible.
ADAM SHAPIRO: Doctor, can you help us understand? There was a headline in the New York Post, and it was one of those headlines – it was click bait. Click here to read, which said, three fully vaccinated people reinfected with COVID. This is not necessarily a bad thing if you get the vaccine because the vaccine prevents you from going to the hospital. What part – the post I’m not going to editorialize, but what are people missing when they think the vaccine protects 100% of you from getting the disease?
BEN WESTON: Okay, so you certainly hit the nail on the head. The vaccine does not prevent you 100% from contracting COVID or even from having slightly symptomatic COVID. Protection rates are now extremely high, 90%, 95% in some of these vaccines. But it is still possible that you are infected, that you have symptoms. What vaccines prevent and all vaccines – all vaccines we’ve seen approved around the world do this, prevent hospitalization.
Most importantly, it avoids death. And it has been 100% in testing for all the vaccines we have examined, certainly for Pfizer, Moderna, J&J and now AstraZeneca. And AstraZeneca – zero. Not a single person has had serious illness, hospitalization or death. And in the end, that’s what we need. If you have mild symptoms, if it looks like you have a mild flu or a little cold, in the end, that’s fine. But we want to make sure that you don’t have this serious illness, let alone hospitalization or death.
SEANA SMITH: Dr. Watson, when we talk about AstraZeneca, it is clear that one of the biggest obstacles that they will have not only here in the USA, but all over the world, is just getting people to board their vaccine, making people comfortable to take the vaccine. How big is the headwind you see in the United States? And what do we need to do to resolve this?
BEN WESTON: You know, it’s a great question. Each vaccine had, I think, acceptance challenges. There are some challenges with Pfizer and Moderna because it is a newer vaccine technology that we have not seen before. Johnson & Johnson, the effectiveness rate in the initial analysis may not seem as high as the others, although I think that when you take a closer look, it’s actually quite an impressive effectiveness rate. And then AstraZeneca, of course, asked a few brief questions about coagulation.
Now, it doesn’t seem to be an AstraZeneca concern at all. And I think in the end, the benefits of getting these vaccines, whether Pfizer, Moderna, J&J, AstraZeneca, the benefits so far – so far – outweigh the risk of getting those vaccines. It is not even – it is not even a comparison that the best vaccine for you is the one you can get and the one you can get ideally today.
ADAM SHAPIRO: And with people rushing to get vaccines, they just dropped to 50 in New York City. We are seeing the scenes outside of Miami, Florida, with young people taking no care and gathering. At what point will we realistically not have to wear masks, and can we get together without the press saying this is a bad thing?
BEN WESTON: Yes, it is a good question. We will get there. I think we will definitely get there. I think there are some phases to that. Therefore, first, individuals must be vaccinated. When you and your family members are vaccinated, you can be together. You can have these meetings and do it safely. Next, you have your community or even your state or country being vaccinated to a degree high enough that you have collective immunity.
And I think at that point, we can start having more public meetings. We can begin to know which situations are safe for masks, which are not. Now, the third phase, which is still a long way away, is when we have immunity from global herd, when we can make international trips to anywhere in the world that you want, just as you would have done a year ago. And that I think is a long way off, but certainly the community’s herd immunity and potentially national herd immunity, I think, is more achievable and I hope it arrives sooner or later.
SEANA SMITH: Dr. Watson, talking about how to obtain collective immunity, I mean, how big is the risk of the crowds in Miami when we talk about the potential consequences of these actions?
BEN WESTON: Yes, so we know from the start, whenever you have an upcoming meeting, there may be a risk. Now, what we see in the image that you have on your screen, are meetings in the open air. This lessens the risk a little. It’s outdoors. This is certainly better. If people are wearing masks, it is better. But having people close to you is never great, especially at large meetings like this. And so we know that we are not out of danger yet. We have the variants, mainly in Florida. They saw that they have a lot of the variant especially B117, so we still need to be aware now.