Doctor on Biden’s vaccine goals: ‘I don’t think that those numbers would be realistic at all’

Dr. William Yates, Former Trauma Surgeon and Founder of Yates Protect Infrared Thermal Detection, joins Yahoo Finance's Kristin Myers to break down the latest coronavirus developments.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, I want to talk now about the coronavirus pandemic. Today, the United States will require a negative COVID test in order to enter the country, as the Brazilian-based mutation of the virus was found in a woman in Minnesota. We have Dr. William Yates joining us now. He's a former trauma surgeon and founder of Yates Protect Infrared Thermal Detection.

So, doctor, as I just mentioned, we have someone in Minnesota who was found with this Brazilian-based mutation of the virus. And we keep hearing how all of these mutations and strains are sometimes more deadly, more contagious. I'm wondering if you think we need to impose harsher travel restrictions, like we saw, for example, Australia and New Zealand do. Because we heard that this woman in Minnesota went to Brazil, got the virus there, and then brought it back.

WILLIAM YATES: Well, I would say it only makes sense that we should have travel restrictions. We see what happened with before when we didn't do it, and we're now in such bad shape from the pandemic. This is a very serious problem in that we know that this virus is more infectious. We don't know if it's more deadly. And those are the things that are going to pan out as time goes on. But we know it's easier to transmit. So that alone means that no, we have-- I mean, or yes, we do have to have these travel restrictions. Very, very necessary.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now absent some of these more stringent restrictions, at least set on a national or federal level, I'm wondering what you make of, on the flip side, what states are doing on a more localized level. California, for example, lifting their stay-at-home orders. Is this really the time to be taking the foot off the gas, so to speak?

WILLIAM YATES: Absolutely not. Obviously, I have nothing to do with government, or it would be different. The numbers from California are just ghastly about what's going on. The positivity rate is almost 10. People-- like, 15 people are dying an hour in California, so it makes no sense at all. I think this is the time that common sense would say, press the gas as hard and as fast as you can for as long as you can, till the data tells you to stop. So I would say I disagree. Who's ever making those decisions there, I don't think they're very wise.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, let's talk about vaccinations because President Biden wants to up the vaccinations to 2 million. How possible do you think that is right now to increase these daily vaccine numbers, given how far under where we want to be?

WILLIAM YATES: Yeah, I think Joe Biden's very smart. And he has the country's best interests at heart. The problem is, it's a problem of supply and demand. You just can't make a vaccine like you make a batch of cookies. The vaccine safety and making these vaccines take quite a long time to make sure they're safe and to make sure that we don't have any repercussions.

So even though the president is very hopeful and very optimistic and has a concrete plan, right now, until other vaccines get in the mix, like J&J and AstraZeneca, I don't think that those numbers will be realistic at all. I mean, it's good to try and it's good to have a plan, but it's all about supply. I don't think we have the supply to fulfill those numbers.

KRISTIN MYERS: Well, keeping on this point, the president also saying that he wants any American that wants to get the vaccine, that they'll be able to get it by this spring. Now April feels like it's honestly right around the corner. Do you see it happening that fast that we can essentially vaccinate everyone that wants to be vaccinated as early as this spring?

WILLIAM YATES: Absolutely not. If you do the math, there are, you know, 300 million people in the United States, maybe 250 million would require the vaccine. So you would need twice that number of doses, 600 million doses. The math doesn't work out, no.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, you said something interesting, that if you were in charge, you wouldn't be doing some of the-- you wouldn't be making some of the decisions that we're seeing being made on a federal level and even on a state level. So if you were in charge for a day, what would you do to fight this virus?

WILLIAM YATES: If I was in charge for a day, I would keep my foot on the pedal, mask, social distancing. Do what I could. Of course, realizing what supply we had-- whatever supply we had, we want to exhaust that supply. Get everyone vaccinated that can be vaccinated. And I'd also work on things that people aren't thinking about, like air filtration systems and what's going to happen in the aftermath, and also, support businesses which have been severely hurt by this catastrophe.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, that's what President Yates would do. Dr. William Yates, former trauma surgeon and founder of Yates Protect Infrared Thermal Detection, thanks so much for joining us today.

WILLIAM YATES: Thank you for having me today.