U.S. Covid-19 Cases Approach 50 Million By MSNBC

Actually on service last week at our Hospital. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. And we were seeing many children with with this disease children who not just came into the hospital. Had to go to the Intensive Care Unit placed on ventilators. And I can tell you not one of those children was vaccinated and often their parents weren’t vaccinated. You see children struggling to breathe. You see children on ventilators. You see their parents crying knowing that this can all be prevented. It’s just hard to watch. That is the very highly regarded doctor and heh,

FDA Advisory Board member Paul often highlighting the damage. This virus is doing to Children. The u.s. Is now approaching 50 million reported cases. Right now. We’re averaging a little over a thousand deaths, everyday. Most, if not all from the Delta variant remember, but a small, preliminary lab study out of South Africa. Got a lot of media attention late today because it suggests the Pfizer vaccine, may be less effective.

Of against this new Omicron variant Wall Street, Journal sums it up this way. Quote. The Omicron variant of coronavirus can partially evade the protection afforded by vaccines but scientists say the shots should still defend those inoculated from severe disease. In other words. Keep us from dying. Keep us out of the hospital with us for more Dr. Irwin, redlener founding director of Colombia’s National Center for disaster. Preparedness. He advises us on public health.

Pediatrician by training. He is Professor of pediatrics at Albert. Einstein College of Medicine doctor, before the break. I said, I would ask you what worries you most let me add to that. What do you make of this study small? As it is these numbers worrisome as they are out of South Africa about Pfizer.

I was hoping you’d forget to answer that question, Brian. You know, what worries me most is what’s worrying me for many. Many months now is the basic disease itself. This is a raging pandemic and it doesn’t let up. We get these little brief respite sand. Then we get back into another search, that worries me a lot and the Omicron variant just adds fuel to that fire. But I think we’re going to, we’re going to be in continuing trouble.

Since we still have so many Americans at least 100 million. Not yet vaccinated, you know, we’re about to reach 800,000 deaths from covid-19. And I’m going to predict right here that if things go continue to go the way they are, we’ll see a million deaths from covid-19 by the end of the first quarter in 2022. And the other thing that really troubles me Bryant is the, the effect on children as Paul off. It was saying this is no

Joke for children, even though the you know, the rates of infection are less than with adults. But this is numbers are really get our attention here. We had a hundred and thirty three thousand cases of covid diagnosed in children last week alone with 500 hospitalizations and eight deaths. So we’re still in it. So now we get Omicron and what are we to make of this? So the variant is going to be I’m sure shown to be much more.

Ages. Then previous variants that. That’s pretty much the case. We don’t yet know, really how sick this is going to be making people. We don’t have enough cases yet. And most of the original cases were in younger people. So it’s very likely that we’ll see a lot, a lot of cases and we’ll see how it goes with the with the seriousness of disease. Still to your question. Now, about are these new is the new variant as vulnerable.

Is it going to be affected and is the is the or the vaccines that are currently out? They’re going to be able to, prevent the disease, will probably not prevent the disease and other words people will still get infected infected. But here’s what it is in terms of if you have been vaccinated. So, if you’ve already had covid and you have now two vaccines, or if you’ve had three doses of the vaccine, you’re going to pretty much be I believe.

Show will be shown to be safe from getting very sick or from dying. It’s the people who have not been vaccinated yet who are going to be in the most trouble as is always the case with covid-19 vaccinations mean, stay out of the hospital and staying alive. How should people who received Pfizer who like me when I was out in my car today? When I heard it on radio news. How should people

React. Even though in your community and the medical community. This is Tiny non peer-reviewed study. This is raw data. Coming out of a country where there are still scrambling because this variant was brought to their Shores. Now, it has come to ours. How should Pfizer recipients greet this news? Other than your instructions, get everybody vaccinated and those vaccinated need to get Bou stirred.

Well, if you’re talking about the very small study, not peer-reviewed that showed that there was something like a 40 times less likely be protected from the vaccine with Omicron, then with the other variants with Delta even. And that, of course, is a worrying piece of information here, especially driving in your car, but it is a potential problem. However, we still believe that the

Scenes will prevent as I was saying earlier, serious disease and deaths and don’t forget that one thing that people should remember, is that what they’re measuring in these little research studies? Right. Now that we have so far on Omicron is they’re measuring neutralizing antibodies, but there are other parts of your immune system and your immune system, which can also protect you from getting very sick, T cells and B cells. And so on that people have heard about so I think

Think it was worried sit for sure, including in me, but I think we’ll need a lot more data before we can draw in a really serious. Conclusions brand. Dr. Irwin, redlener a true public health professional that has been our guest tonight with our thanks for. As always, taking our questions and giving us clear answers in return.