Biden's relief plan includes billions for vaccine rollout

President of Aventura Pulmonary Institute Dr. Gustavo Ferrer joined Yahoo Finance Live to discuss how Biden's relief plan includes billions for rolling out more vaccines and what this means for the U.S. economy.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Just to get your reaction to what we just heard from Anjalee, more details here from President-elect Joe Biden. But there's still a lot of questions that I think need to be answered.

GUSTAVO FERRER: Absolutely. I think this is-- we can say that a sanctuary is a good start, that we see the entire nation and the administration refocusing in on the pandemic, which is devastating not only America, but many countries around the planet. So it is important that this is a good beginning, that we see the funding for deploying FEMA and deploying systems that will get the vaccine there.

But there are questions like we want to see how this is going to be actually making this whole process happen. We want to see campaigns and education. I think there is a lot of things that the task force, the group that he put together, that they need to give us a little bit more information.

ADAM SHAPIRO: I am curious. If you've got the money that everyone says is necessary, could we reach that goal of 100 million inoculations by, I think it's June? Is that realistic?

GUSTAVO FERRER: At the pace that we are today, it is unrealistic that we're going to get there. I do believe-- I see this in daily practice today-- I do believe that we need to initiate a campaign on education quickly. I see health care professionals that didn't want to get the vaccine. I see patients raising a lot of questions. I get almost daily, we get tons of people calling our office, asking about what are our thoughts about the vaccine.

So all of these questions, they need to be answered. Questions like, will the vaccine prevent the transmission? Should I-- when I get vaccinated, do I have to use the mask? All of these are key questions that need to be answered in order to not only deploy the system, but also get the people vaccinated.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Doctor, I know one of other things, too, is the Mask Up effort and the idea that the president-elect did say that he would have an executive order that would apply only to federal level individuals and buildings and wherever his authority reaches. But the rest of the country still remains unmasked, or to the discretion of the states. I just wonder, you know, do you feel that with the new administration, we could see changes to the strategy? Are we still fighting the same fight?

GUSTAVO FERRER: I think if we are going to see a change in strategy, what we're going to see is-- is a message that comes-- it is cohesive. It is a message that goes along not only with the government policy, but we're going to see other systems of hospitals and organization coming alongside and helping educate our family.

Think we have spent way too many months in confusion, and it is the time to clarify and get the message across, teaching people that is truly social distancing. A mask has helped, but there are many other things that we all need to teach our patients, our families, and actually, you guys are doing a fantastic job amplifying the whole message.

SEANA SMITH: Doctor, I believe-- are you in Florida? I believe you're in Florida.

GUSTAVO FERRER: Yes, I am.

SEANA SMITH: What's the current situation there? Because we talked about Florida back in the summer becoming a hotspot. Now we're seeing cases start to pick up a bit in this state. What's it like where you are, and what are you doing here to try and prevent-- further prevent the spread?

GUSTAVO FERRER: It is extremely interesting. During the summer, we truly saw a tremendous increase in the number of cases that we saw actually going into the hospital and developing a very severe pneumonia and, you know, filling up our ICUs. We're not seeing that right now, and I think there is plenty of factors in there.

We do see a significant increase in the number of cases, but we're not yet at capacity. I think we have learned in the intensive care units and in the hospital associations, we have better guidance in how to handle the patients, how to treat patients, how to triage people that can go home. And the hospital side, I see a great progressing to that.

My concern is the social activities. We-- every time we see any spike in the number of cases is because we are getting closer and closer together and doing festivities and meetings and reunions. So those are the things that I think they will require an aggressive campaign. When it comes to the whole state, we have seen a little plateau this week, but I don't think that this is actually reflecting the end of the year number of cases. Next week, we may be seeing in Florida then a spike in cases as well.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Doctor, any sense if Florida has enough vaccine? My parents-- this is a self-interested question-- they're in South Florida. They're scheduled to get their vaccines at the end of the month and early February, but here in New York City, for instance, they're already saying we're running out of vaccine. Is that a potential in Florida?

GUSTAVO FERRER: Well, you know, all the things that happen in other states are things that we all need to learn and look and pay attention to it. What I can say is actually that I have-- actually, my own office, we-- we are in an area in South Florida by North Miami, which is heavily populated with retired people. I had a phone call yesterday at the end of the day that they want to try to put a place in our office where they're going to be administering vaccines. So we don't see the message of shortage of vaccine right now. What I see is that the promise, but we don't see the deployment yet.

SEANA SMITH: Dr. Gustavo Ferrer, we know you're very busy, so thank you so much for taking the time to join us here on Yahoo Finance Live. We wish you and your team all the best.