Welcome back to Chester's news perhaps now you may think
the pandemic is over. But our president says otherwise
, President biden signing, sounding the alarm this morning
at the second global pandemic summit. He said,
quote today, we mark a tragic milestone here in
the United States, one million covid deaths, one
million empty chairs around the family dinner table that resonated
with a lot of folks joining me now is Dr
is discussed as Dr William Schaffner, professor of infectious
diseases at Vanderbilt Medical Center. So dr Schaffner,
thank you for being on with us. What is
the current state of the coronavirus here in the US
? Well, ken we're not ready yet for mission
accomplished, I'm afraid. Although we are moving in
the right direction, we're moving from this big pandemic
phase where we had big health care crises down to
more endemic. By that, I mean, hospitalizations
are going down in a sustained way and there's been
a relief of that strain on the healthcare system.
However, this virus, this omicron and its variants
continue to be able to spread even among vaccinated people
. So there's a lot of spread. But the
vaccines continue to work to keep us out of the
hospital and vaccinations will continue to be in the near
term future. The key to controlling this virus.
Alright, so from a medical standpoint, what still
needs to be done regarding testing treatments and vaccine both
here in the U. S. And globally testing
treatment and vaccines more more and more. We need
to vaccinate a much larger proportion of the entire world's
population. Obviously by testing we can find out where
the infections are and respond to it and we need
better treatments because if you're recently infected we can now
treat you with an antiviral drug that will help keep
you out of the hospital. So we need more
of that internally here. More vaccination. For example
, in my own state where we're under vaccinated and
all of those things around the world. Now,
Biden spoke about that milestone of nearing one million deaths
from COVID-19. But is there any positive models,
milestones that we've hit or are going to hit?
Ah we've hit a lot of positive milestones. Look
at that those cases are going down, that's because
of vaccination. How much research we have done on
diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, public health aspects and
we're now keeping people out of the hospital, we're
doing much better. We still have a long way
to go. However, in order to provide these
benefits to not only the entire population here in the
United States but around the world. Now experts warn
that more variants will spring up around the world if
we don't do anything to contain some of these variants
and the original Covid obviously virus. So what can
individuals do if lawmakers won't budge on their stances?
Well, individuals they can make sure that they're vaccinated
that their families are vaccinated, persuade their relatives and
neighbors to be vaccinated for their benefit? The benefit
of their families and their communities vaccination continues to be
fundamental. How concerned are you about perhaps additional variants
? That's a concern for all of us. We
know that these minor variants of omicron are coming up
, but fortunately our vaccines work against those. What
we're concerned about are these big new variants that may
suddenly show up as delta did as omicron did somewhere
in the world. And then come here, that's
a statistical event. What we can do to try
to reduce that risk Has helped everybody else around the
world to get vaccinated. We are a global village
now, the World Health Organization has a target of
vaccinating 70%. Just make sure I'm reading that right
, 70% of the world by June, what are
the chances of that happening. ken that's an aspirational
goal that will keep everybody motivated to do their best
. But uh, I don't know whether we're going
to meet that goal, but we should all work
toward it. How do you change the mindset of
those who have given up, who have covid fatigue
, who have heard in the past that were out
of this. But now we're hearing that we're not
quite out of it. How do we change their
mindset to take this more seriously? Now, more
than ever, we take first of all their concerns
very seriously. And then we ask them what their
major issues are and try to provide them not only
the facts, but a sense of comfort and reassurance
that by getting vaccinated, they will help not only
themselves, but everyone. All right, Dr William
Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt Medical Center
, doctor. It's always a pleasure to have you
on. Thank you for sharing your expertise and wisdom --> .