One good share deserves another.
>> From KPRC Channel 2 this is deserves another.
>> From KPRC Channel 2 this is Houston newsmakers with
khambrel Marshall.
khambrel Marshall. >> The economy of the state of
Texas is starting to reopen
much has been talked about
regarding the timing of such an
opening
opening is it too much too soon how
much longer can the economy
wait how many more people will
die from COVID-19 related
causes and how many of those
additional deaths will be
attributed to opening too fast
or too soon.
The answers to those questions
of course aren’t known right
now, but there’s plenty of
science that indicates what
might happen in the weeks and
months to come. Experts on
the front lines have been
telling us what we might expect
while politicians have been
telling us their plan
of action takes the expert
input as guidance doctor, Peter
hotez is an expert physicians,
scientists with an MD and a ph
D whose expertise
is vaccines. He is the dean of
the National School of tropical
medicine at Baylor College of
Medicine as well
and he’s also a professor in
the departments of Pediatrics
and Mike and molecular virology
and microbiology that’s a
mouthful doctor hotez
thank you for joining
appreciate a good to see
you again, I’m looking to see
you thanks for having me back
this talk about vaccines.
What have you heard in the past
week or so that gives you some
optimism that there may be a
vaccine that has promise as far
as COVID-19
as COVID-19 is concerned.
is concerned. >> Well thanks. We’re also
developing a vaccine and we
hope to
hope to contribute to what’s a getting
to be a pretty big less the
vaccine candidate Sen
moving into the clinical trials
pipeline and you need those
many candidates, if you want to
turn this around quickly
because although the very
behind it is not complicated
it’s about making an immune
response that virus like
protein Boston. Those pictures
of the fire is a look like a
donut with spikes sticking out
of its of you neutralize that
Speicher June get a vaccine.
The problems which is the best
way to do it which is the
safest way to do it so
we have what approach for the
specific recombinant protein
technology are you hearing
about all sorts of
other ones at the end of the
day we don’t know which is
going to be
the best terms of giving the
best level of protection and
safety in so it’s all moving a
series of clinical trials and
hopefully by next year
sometime. I will have a few
vaccines that look like
a promise.
a promise. >> And so a lot of people have
been kind of hedging on how
long it’s going to take that
no number that a number of
months really hasn’t changed
very much as in terms of how
long it might take to have a
vaccine ready to go and put
into a public use.
>> Yeah there’s been quite a
bit of Coming out of the White
House elsewhere about the
vaccine
vaccine program and we need to up our
game in terms of communications
I think what we’re hearing a
lot about is the fact that the
White House is are going to organize a series of
manufacturing program so
several vaccines will be our
the scale that can manufacture
and even before we know if
they’re going to work or not
Earth or if they’re safe and
the idea is
as a one or 2 of them showed be
the case then we can have them
ready to go.
So you’re hearing about
manufacturing by the fall and I
think that’s a possibility but
we will I don’t think we’ll
really have a vaccine ready to
go early as next year.
And even if it’s ready next
year that was still the world
record. I think the world
records from 4 years
now we’re and you concentrating
that down to the year and a
half which would be charged.
>> Well the meantime I’m here
in the state
a congressman indicated he said
last week that governor Abbott
it opened up a can of common
sense in terms of reopening the
It with your background
diseases like this what your
opinion about what’s going on
right now and into those
a vaccine is that they’re
always going to be a risk
involved we do something like
opening up the state in the
country in fact. Yeah, you know
it’s a.
it’s a. You know I think it
is 6.
is 6. >> orchestrated type of thing
that we have that we have to
advance so what I mean by
that well some of the models
are coming out of Seattle
you’ve heard about the age and
the models and
said that I mean the Houston in
Texas these to
socially distance so the middle
of June in order to get back to
containment mode meaning that
will have less than one
new case. Per day per
million residents and the
problem is our economy is
already been devastated and my
son is feeling it, he’s and
he’s up Trillium engineer in
the oil and gas industry and we
don’t know what’s happening
with oil so we get that the
stations in you to me the issue
is this.
is this. >> How can you open the economy
get people back to we’re good.
>> Businesses open and do it in
a safe way. So that we don’t
see a big resurgence because
we are opening it up before the
models tell us and we can do it
safely so how
do you organized and I think
the one of the ways around it
is too. Maximize the amount of
testing that we can do in the
workplace. So you know if your
colleagues in the workplace,
whether it’s target
or why Marder a law office that
you know your colleagues does
not have any symptomatic
of a and then we do is called
contact. Tracing which is
identified in bring people in
someone’s for me positive and
then you can contact
all the get all the contacts of
the contacts of the contacts
get the men
back into 14 or isolation and
then there are other things
like 2 instruments surveillance
public of
public of the nation and building models
the bottom
the bottom line is we need if we’re going
to be smart about it we need to
have a public health system in
place that’s commensurate with
all of the plans for economic
recovery in were frankly not
quite there yet
I think the mayor and the
county judge are working
overtime. Together with some
great departments of health and
Harris County and city to make
that happen. But it it’s hard to go from 0 to 60 in the
course of the few days so it
will take on trust
built up.
built up. >> So it’s going to be a risk
it sounds to me as we move
forward until because we’re
head of what the models
of said some folks have
indicated that they’re done
with the models because the
models indicated just really
really horrific numbers of
people dying and that hasn’t
happened. Others would say that
the reason that hasn’t happened
is because people socially
distance and did some of
the things to kind of blunt
that model would you tell those
folks who are like well you
keep your models and just let
us go back to work.
>> Well I think we need
humility and both sides
including our side which is to
say
say that look models are models and
they’re only as good as the
assumptions that we put into
the models and the assumptions
frankly are not
robust because we’re still in
on the steep learning curve
about this virus we’re learning
new things about it
every day. One thing I will say
the leadership of Houston did a
good job. Mayor and the county
judge and
judge and the others because we saw what
was happening in New York
sitting with this big surge in
the ice using all the
devastation all thousands of
deaths we said we’re not going
to let that happen here you
stand and we
wind up socially distancing
pretty early so as soon as he
saw was happening in New York
we implemented
we implemented social distancing probably
before the virus got here in a
big way and yes in
the monster and this is if you
live transmission to go on for
a long period of time. Before
you implement social
distancing. That’s when you get
the big search that’s what
happened in New York probably
the virus entered New York
City. Beginning of February
social distancing didn’t happen
on March 22nd, and you’ve got a
disaster here I think
we probably did a lot sooner
and saved a lot of lives.
The council.
The council. >> What’s the big difference
between you’re so familiar with
these vaccines in these
pandemics and epidemics
what’s the biggest difference
with this COVID-19 compared to
other outbreaks you seen it
seems to people who are tending
to want to compare it to
the flu. When I read more in
depth about it it just doesn’t
look anything like the flu in
terms the way it impacts a
community.
community. >> The really troubling things
about this virus
is it has 2 faces 2 and I
called the jam us taste to The
Greek agenda set you back 2
faces
faces who won. Some people are
getting very sick and we’re
still learning why these fires
is making people sick we’re
starting to see
a lot of clotting disorder.
Some are seen on an alive we’re
seeing coronary artery disease
we’re seeing stroke so that’s
pretty worrisome. For
one set of people in there for
another 7 people may do just
fine there without any symptoms
at all or low grade symptoms
but they’re shedding a lot of
buyers and this is what makes
it so hard it controls all
those people may
be a the half with COVID-19
have no symptoms at all in
there walking around just every
time the and the virus
is replicating in their upper
Airways every time they’re
speaking, they’re
speaking, they’re shedding virus and then a lot
of people get infected and so
this is highly transmissible
and
and we have I can ever think of a
virus that’s been quite like
this and the taken a little bit
of time to figure this out.
Scientists are working on that
day and night we’re working on
it day and night.
But it’s it makes it really
problematic to control it
without a vaccine and that’s
why we have to go back to
14 century which is one
quarantine was invented and
hopefully. I know one of 31 of
these vaccines will become
available and year or longer
and but in
the meantime the reality is and
now that weaves. Open up the
city faster than
we and the models tell us we
can do it safely. And until we
get that House and the place we
will see an increase in
COVID-19 cases in there.
And I’m particularly worried
about some of the low
income neighbor, inner city cam
Brown and the reason is because
you know how to use social
distance and some of these
crowded neighborhoods,
crowded neighborhoods, especially in households.
We have lots of people in those
households number one the
other problem and as that an
African Americans than a
communities year. Pretty high
rates of co-morbidities meaning
diabetes or hypertension
or obesity. And now we know
that those are risk factors for
getting seriously
getting seriously else so a high percentage of
those patients that are in the
ice years. And the hospital
says the Texas Medical Center
including Baylor Saint Luke’s
and Ben Taub where which is
linked to Baylor College
of Medicine. are have those
underlying conditions and a and
so on I’m you know in
that sense.
that sense. You saw this New Orleans
COVID-19 is a health disparity
it’s going to be out this
parity here in Houston is out
there T
there T here was.
here was. >> Doctor KOH Tess thank you so
much we’re going continue this
Thank you for sticking around
with us on our news makers
extra portion
extra portion of this. Thank you for being
willing to do that and good
luck to you on the advancements