Doctor: 'Vaccine rollout is so far behind where we need it to be'

Emergency Medicine Physician Dr. Steven McDonald joins Yahoo Finance's Kristin Myers to break down the latest coronavirus developments, as U.S. hospitalizations begin to decline.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: According to the COVID-19 tracker at Johns Hopkins, we have now surpassed 24 million positive cases of coronavirus in the United States. And according to the CDC, hospitalizations are elevated, but declining. So let's talk more about this now with Dr. Steven McDonald, an emergency medicine physician.

So, doctor, I want to start with that point about hospitalizations. This is a seemingly good trend that the hospitalizations are on the decline. However, if anyone takes a look at that chart, they're still incredibly high compared to where we were a few months ago. I'm wondering what you're seeing in the emergency room and if you think that this is a sign that perhaps we're doing something right in this moment and if we're, in a way, perhaps changing the tide in this battle against coronavirus.

STEVEN MCDONALD: Absolutely. So, on the ground of the emergency room, normally, there's a plethora of patients with many different conditions. People are there for appendicitis, for food poisoning, et cetera, et cetera. I will say in recent weeks, it is increasingly most people are there for COVID. And their diversity of illness that you're normally seeing is withered down significantly. That said, these numbers are hopeful. And I haven't yet seen it on the ground in New York City, but I hope to see it soon.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now, how much of the vaccine rollout do you think is positively impacting this pandemic right now?

STEVEN MCDONALD: That's a good question. I think there's a bit of a tension here because we have these new strains that are more contagious and are rapidly spreading throughout the population. And at the same time, we have vaccines that are hopefully going to be protecting the most vulnerable among us. It's difficult to say which of these forces is going to win out more quickly. I would say as of now, the virus is winning. The vaccine rollout is so far behind where we need it to be.

KRISTIN MYERS: So, to that point that the vaccine rollout is far less from where we want it to be, just for everyone at home, we're less than 10% of the priority population vaccinated right now. At this current rate, do you think that we're all going to need to stay indoors, stay isolated, throughout the entirety of 2021? It almost seems hard to envision, given where we are right now, that we're going to reach any kind of herd immunity by spring, in just a few months.

STEVEN MCDONALD: Absolutely. I don't have a crystal ball, but if rates continue as they are, I think remaining in isolation and under these public health restrictions will be reasonable for the rest of the year. That said, hopefully, we're learning from our errors. And we'll have a much more effective rollout in the spring.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now, according to "The Washington Post," they did a poll. Most Americans are saying right now that this pandemic is, quote, "out of control." I'm wondering if that sentiment really lines up with reality as you're seeing it. Do you also perceive the pandemic as out of control? I know you said that we are, right now, losing. The pandemic, the virus is winning.

STEVEN MCDONALD: Listen, as long as the numbers in the United States continue to remain 200,000, 100,000 people being affected every day, it's hard to say anything's under control. Even though-- even as things trend in the right directions, the magnitude of those numbers suggests that this is very much out of our control. And I really think a vaccine is going to be the only thing that can sort of rein it in. Because we have public health measures in place, that they seem to not be working so far.

KRISTIN MYERS: So then, what else needs to be done? I know that we keep hearing, listen, everyone needs to just stop meeting up with each other indoors and maskless. Everyone needs to just wear your mask.

But what more can be done? Is it keeping those travel restrictions from people from Europe and from Brazil? Is it creating some kind of national rollout plan for the vaccine? I mean, what do we really need to be doing on a federal level perhaps to really make sure that we can change the tide in this fight, that we can make sure that the virus doesn't win?

STEVEN MCDONALD: Sure, so I think, first of all, beefing up the vaccine supply chains is going to be key in the fight against this. In terms of stopping the spread and what individuals can do, the overwhelming source of spread is what's called living room spread.

So this is when you have people over who you presume are safe, but actually have had an exposure, are infected, even if they may not be showing signs of symptoms. That's how this really spreads. And so, until we can somehow get a handle on that, which would mean regulating individual behavior, we're really not going to have a handle on the transmissibility of this.

KRISTIN MYERS: Absolutely. It's a good point that you mentioned there, doctor. Everyone saying, listen, you cannot trust your mom and your cousin and your best friend just because they say that they are negative. It's best to just stay away from folks and stay masked up. Dr. Steven McDonald, emergency medicine physician, thanks so much for joining us.

STEVEN MCDONALD: Thank you for having me.