researchers at johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health estimate three out of four people will be
infected with omicron before the surge ends joining us.
Now to talk more about this stage we're at, in the
pandemic is Dr. Dyan Hes. Who is joining us once again,
Thank you so much for joining us, doctor. How
optimistic are you at this point that we may be getting
closer to a time where we're just kind of living with
the virus as opposed to consistently making differen
guidelines and mandates. Yeah, you know right now I'm
optimistic but nobody knows what the future holds. So
we don't know if there's gonna be another mutati
that's gonna cause it to be more dangerous again um in
history most pandemics do burn out by the virus
becoming more contagious and less virulent. So that's
what we're seeing with the omicron stream. So hopefull
this will just become another, you know virus and other
viral syndrome that we're going to live with and and
learn how to deal with. And hopefully as more and more
people become vaccinated will have less repercussions
of the hospitalizations and missing school and missing
work. Yeah. And so let's talk a little bit more about
those mandates we're seeing across the country lately,
Mask mandates are being lifted in um certain businesses
or and even in schools, how do you think this factors
into trying to reach this sort of endemic stage. Well
personally, I I don't believe the masks were really
working very well for omicron, I think the masks were
extremely effective when the um when the pandemic
started back in March 2020 but as American became so
contagious um unless dangerous. Many, many people were
relaxing their mask usage. I mean, I have patients who
have to wear a mask who are two years old in New York
city, they have to wear a mask to daycare, but then
they take a nap without a mask so they're all in the
same room together. Does the virus stop, you know, stop
being present in your restaurant droplets when you're
sleeping? No, it's just that you can't enforce this
anymore. It's not working. Um, I think for Children,
the mask mandate should be dropped or be optional
personally. I don't think that it was a very effective
considering that New York city has a very strict mask
mandate and almost, you know, all of our patients who
are unvaccinated that COVID between December and
January and last time we spoke with you Dr. Hes, you
had some criticism for the CDCs messaging when it came
to the booster shots. Uh now there's some other
conversation when it comes to the messaging around
masking as states are lifting restrictions more and
more. The CDC hasn't officially changed its guidance
yet. What are your thoughts on what's going on there? I
just feel it's very politicized, I feel that they'v
dug their heels in and then they, they don't want to
change because of, you know, these political
affiliations they have instead of basing their
decisions on science. I mean, most, most, you know,
infectious disease doctors, epidemiologists say that we
can lift the mask ban now, especially for kids when t
repercussions of wearing a mask are so much greater.
You know, you always have the option as an adult or as
a parent, mask your child, but to collectively punish a
whole population of Children who are not benefiting
from the mask, they're still gonna catch omicron.
What's going to happen is by the time the youngest
Children are eligible for the vaccine, probably in
April, most of those kids are already gonna have
omicron because it is spreading so quickly to the kids
who are unvaccinated. So I just feel like they dug
their heels in and they are very resistant to change
where other countries really, you know, change as the
science and you know, technolog changes with it. Um, I
feel that the CDC has always lagged behind and that a
being said, what are your thoughts on how we can make
sure to keep immuno compromised people safe? I know you
mentioned that you think masking shouldn't be required
in schools, but what about places where people are more
at risk of getting very sick or dying from covid, even
if they are vaccinated, Well, you can say like in
hospitals or healthcare setting everybody has to be
masked. That would be something fair to say. Um, but
remember people who are immuno compromised are very um
immuno compromised for not just covid, so they have to
be cautious for things like flu or RsV or you know, any
other virus. So those people can choose to still wear
masks. I know when I say this, you know, a lot of
people get upset and I put myself out there and I get
nasty emails and messages from people saying, well my
child is immune compromised or my spouse is immune
compromised. The thing is, is that everybody needs to
have a chance to get over this pandemic and to live
again. And you can't collectively punish all the
students, the United States, when students in the
Netherlands, students in Israel students in UK, they
all go to school without masks and they're not, you
know, dropping dead like the media wants you to think
they are, they are just getting, you know, the anaconda
virus if they are getting sick and they're sick for two
or three days and they go back to school after five
days. I don't even think you have to be home for five
days if you're not symptomatic personally. Yeah, W
I don't think not all media is, is saying that kids are
going to drop dead if they're not wearing their mouth
No, but it's not like it's a lot, it's yeah, not you,
I'm sorry, but like I feel like, you know, people rea
the headlines and there's a lot of fearmongering and
that's been happening, you know, since then and there's
a small group of us that are vocal and uh, you know, we
get criticized but we are the ones who are dealing with
the kids every day. We are the ones who are taking care
of the families every day. And we see that really
hasn't been more for kids who are healthy. It hasn't
been more than a febrile viral illness with some group.
Yes, there is a very small percentage who get the
inflammatory disorder, but still it's treatable.
They're not dying from it. And we have other viruses
that you know, are very dangerous for kids to like flu.
And that's why we give the flu vaccine. But we have we
have to start evolving and changing our rules and
mandates to meet the science. Yes. And we will see if
the CDC does indeed change guidance. Moving forward
Alright. Doctor Hes with Gramercy Pediatrics. Thank
again for joining us.