Dr. Ashish Jha told CNBC on Tuesday in “The News with Shepard Smith” that the United States could begin making decisions about opening businesses and economies earlier than expected if enough people are vaccinated.
“My relatively optimistic view is that we should not wait until the end of summer or even the beginning of summer, that by the end of spring, if there are enough vaccinated people, you will start to see the number of cases really go down a lot, ”said Jha, who is dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University,“ this will allow us to start opening up the economy a lot more, so we don’t have to wait and we just have to to make sure that infections, the high levels of infection we have right now, will improve. “
President Joe Biden set a critical benchmark in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. He promised to deliver enough doses of vaccine to states for almost every American by the end of the summer. Biden said he will have 200 million more vaccine doses in the government, half from Pfizer and half from Moderna. The deal would increase the country’s vaccine supply to 600 million shots.
“This vaccine is enough to completely vaccinate 300 [million] Americans in late summer, early fall, “Biden said Tuesday at the White House.
To vaccinate 300 million people on September 22, the last day of summer, the nation will need 600 million doses at a rate of about 2.4 million shots a day. This means that it exceeds the 23 million that have already been captured. Biden said the government will start sending states to 10 million shots a week over the next three weeks. This represents an increase of almost 20% compared to what is currently delivered.
Johnson & Johnson waits results to the Covid vaccine early next week. According to CNBC’s Meg Tirrell, the company conducted its trial on three continents, including South Africa and Brazil, where new highly transmissible variants have been identified. This means that Johnson & Johnson’s results could reveal important information about how vaccines designed around Covid’s original strain against emerging ones work.
Dr. Bruce Becker, adjunct professor of behavioral medicine and social sciences at Brown University School of Public Health, told The News with Shepard Smith that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires one shot and, for thus, immunity is achieved between 14 and 21 years of age. days.
“The J&J vaccine can vaccinate twice as many patients for each vaccine supply, twice as much coverage and immunity in less than half the time,” Becker said. “It’s a much greater efficiency to block the spread of Covid.”
Jha told host Shepard Smith that a single dose would help “a lot” in the vaccination effort, but questioned the company’s production capacity.
“I think one of the less clear questions is how much stock of the J&J vaccine do we have?” asked Jha. “There are some reports that haven’t gone so well, production hasn’t gone so well, but anyway, a dose as a vaccine is much easier to administer.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study on Tuesday that said the spread of Covid in schools is very low with the right precautions. Jha explained that the U.S. can open schools across the country, but “we have to do it” with preventative measures that include masks and effective ventilation.
Becker stressed the importance of preventative measures and even said students who do not meet the requirements should be banned from school.
“The masking, social distancing and deadly misinformation that has been propagated by the previous administration and their voices have led to our current dilemma,” Becker said. “Schools can be opened if the rules are followed to the letter.”
Biden said Tuesday that “it will be months before we can vaccinate most Americans” and that “masks not vaccines” are the best defense against Covid while Americans wait for their vaccine.