It was a relatively easy decision: J&J Exec shares experience working in the frontlines

New York City hospitals were slammed in April, known as the peak of the coronavirus crisis. Dr. Ed Kuffner, Johnson & Johnson Chief Medical Officer Consumer Companies joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to discuss the company’s search for a coronavirus vaccine.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: You watching "On the Move" on Yahoo Finance. I'm Julie Hyman alongside Adam Shapiro. Well, when the pandemic began to take hold in the United States, a number of people whose day jobs-- full-time jobs were not or no longer being on the front lines took leaves of absence to go and do that. One of them is Dr. Ed Kuttner. He is the Johnson & Johnson chief medical officer of its consumer companies.

He took a break, although break is probably not the correct term for it. He took a leave of absence to go work at a hospital on Coney Island. And he's here with us now joining us now from Philadelphia. Dr. Kuffner, thank you for joining us. And just talk to us a little bit about your experience doing that, stepping away from what is now, I imagine, more of a corporate desk job and back into working on the front lines.

ED KUFFNER: Sure, thanks so much for having me on. You know, for me, it was relatively a easy decision. I'm trained as an emergency medicine physician. And I knew I had the skills to help out. I did my training in New York City, went to medical school in New York City and kind of felt like I had an obligation to go back and help the people of New York.

It worked out fantastic, because Johnson & Johnson is a company that really puts public health above everything else. And when I asked could I go and volunteer in New York, they said go ahead. And it worked out because I had a good friend who was the chairman of the emergency department at Coney Island Hospital. And I knew that they needed support there. And so all of those things came together. And, overall, it was a very tough experience but a rewarding experience. And I enjoyed being able to get back.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Dr. Kuffner, Adam Shapiro here. We should point out-- I think it was J&J-- what-- a 100 different people were able to do similar things that you did with their pay coverage by J&J for 14 weeks as they assist in this pandemic. What did you see on the front lines that you might be able to share with the people at J&J, as they work maybe on a vaccine or creating products to help hospitals get through the crisis?

ED KUFFNER: But, really, what you saw on the front lines during the surge in New York City was unprecedented. The volume of patients that were coming in-- the severity of the illness-- is coming from a company like J&J that puts public health first. It was great to be able to see the impact that all of us as a health care community can have. So private companies working together with the public and other health care institutions really to put patients first.

- Hey, and I just kind of wanted to ask what it was really like to see the surge and then the come down from the surge. And, you know, have you noticed any kind of changes in the way patients are being treated, as the surge kind of came and started to ebb a little bit?

ED KUFFNER: Sure. So at the height of the surge and being up the surge, I got up there around that time. The Emergency Department was completely overwhelmed with the number of patients. We set a tent up in the parking lot for overflow where we're able to handle patients and take some of the pressure off of the main emergency department and even the hospital while we were there.

Even during the height of the surge, actually, the main focus was on the patients who had COVID. And many of us were asking ourselves, where are the usual patients? Where are the patients who are having heart attacks and strokes and other medical conditions? And once you got through to the height of the surge, the volume from coronavirus dropped off still having patients come in sick. But we haven't really seen the uptick in all of those other patients.

And actually, it's something that worries me. It's something that worries many other emergency medicine physicians, because there probably are a lot of people out there who aren't getting care. And so what I would say to those people is, if you are having life-threatening conditions, and you need care, please go and access that care.

RICK NEWMAN: Hey, Dr. Kuffner, Rick Newman. One disturbing element of what's been going on with COVID is the disparity in access to health care and quality of health care. It often breaks down along racial lines or urban suburban lines. Do you have any new insights into how we can improve health care for people for whom that itself is a problem, especially as we're dealing with this virus?

ED KUFFNER: Sure. One of the reasons I actually went to Brooklyn because I knew it was an underserved area. And I think coming out of it, I say to myself, thank goodness for New York City public health and hospital system, as well as Coney Island Hospital, because I don't know where the people of that part of Brooklyn would be without Coney Island Hospital in that system.

And so I think moving forward, the public hospital systems-- they're the safety net. We've demonstrated that through this epidemic and pandemic here. And I think we need to put more focus on making sure we're supporting those public health systems.

I think we need greater partnership-- public private partnerships for the overall health care perspective. And in my personal opinion, there is no question that we weren't adequately prepared for this pandemic. And we can and need to do better moving forward. And that's all of us working closely together.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Can you help us understand-- for instance, J&J makes Tylenol. And we keep hearing about Tylenol being used in emergency rooms-- why Tylenol has some kind of positive effect for people who are fighting all of this.

ED KUFFNER: So yes, we do make Tylenol. What I would say is Tylenol doesn't have any special positive effect. It's a pain reliever/fever reducer. We know that many people with coronavirus can develop fever. Many people will develop the muscle aches and pains, And so it's one medicine that people can use to treat the symptoms of coronavirus. It certainly doesn't treat the disease process. But it helps people feel more comfortable if they are having fever or pain.

Like I always say when I'm talking about our medicines, it's really important to always read and follow the label and make sure people aren't taking too much when they're taking our medicines. And if they have any questions, obviously, ask a health care professional.

JULIE HYMAN: Dr. Ed Kuffner, thank you so much for your time. Mr. Johnson & Johnson, chief medical officer of its consumer companies-- appreciate it.

ED KUFFNER: Thank very much for having me on.

JULIE HYMAN: Thank you.