A doctor who served on the Biden-Harris transitional COVID-19 advisory committee said that the COVID-19 pandemic may last at least a year in the United States.
Dr. Celine Gounder, an epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at New York University, said she knows that people are “frustrated and tired” with the virus when they talk about it. PBSof Shooting line with Margaret Hoover.
She said: “I think we will have at least another year to experience in this rough, COVID-19-ridden country.” “At that time, we really needed to vaccinate as many people as possible.”
Hoover said that the audience will be surprised to hear Gounder hint that the COVID-19 pandemic may continue for another year. Gounder responded that vaccination can help end the pandemic more quickly and should be a priority, especially when new variants emerge.
She said: “The faster we let people get vaccinated, this is how we end the COVID epidemic phase in this country.” “Unfortunately, with the emergence of new variants, the level of vaccination we need to reach continues to rise. “
Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, provided a more optimistic timetable, saying that as long as people get vaccinated, 2022 will be a “better year”.
“As long as we can get more people vaccinated, I really think 2022 should be a very good year for the United States,” he told Hoover.
Jha said he did not expect that after a “terrible year of the pandemic,” at least one-third of Americans would choose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
He believes that 2023 will be the first year for the world to return to a “new normal”.
In this episode, the three also discussed Delta variants, vaccine hesitation, and vaccine boosters.
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Gounder said that vaccinated and unvaccinated people still have questions about the vaccine. She found that listening to and asking about patients’ experiences helped build confidence in vaccines.
“Ask about their experience in the health system? What was their experience during the pandemic? How do they feel?” Gothe said. “Many times, they will feel the need to raise questions in return. Only then did I have the opportunity to provide some information about the vaccine.”
Jha agrees that listening is helpful, and said that everyone who is not vaccinated is “anti-vaccine” and “not only is it not helpful, but it is wrong.” He also advocated mandatory vaccination, The Biden administration will not implement, according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Varensky.
“A lot of people I know want to be vaccinated, but everyone around them tells them that they can’t or shouldn’t be vaccinated,” he said. “Authorization takes some decisions away from people and actually relieves many of their social anxiety and guilt.”
As the discussion about the potential boost of the two-dose vaccine begins, Grounder believes that “not everyone needs a third dose.”
“Some people may. Especially immunosuppressed people, maybe some elderly people,” she said.
Jha agreed, but pointed out that the new data might change his mind.
Weekly newspaper Gounder and Jha were contacted for further comments, but no response was received in time.
