Good afternoon and thanks so much
for joining us here on 9 News Plus
I'm Chris Bianchi and as always,
on Tuesdays we've got a special guest
discuss COVID-19 specifically in the
Hispanic community here in Colorado.
And as always, we are chatting today
with Doctor Ricardo Gonzalez Fisher,
a medical expert with Servicios de La Raza,
and you have a question in
either English or in Spanish.
Will be doing this bilingually.
Make sure that you e-mail me at Chris.
Stop Yankee at 9.
We'll make sure that your question
is answered either this week or more
likely in the upcoming week Doctor.
Can we start things off by asking
you about this Omicron specific
vaccine and why it'll be important
to potentially to to to get it when
it's available in the next few weeks?
Yes, it's very important to talk about
this crisis because as we've been
witnessing that during the past months,
we've had new variants in sub variants of the
original coronavirus the the COVID-19 virus,
and we've been seeing that certain variants
are being more resistant to the vaccine.
And this means that even if we're vaccinated,
we can get COVID-19.
One of the things we have to remind
our viewers is that even if you get
COVID-19 when you're vaccinated,
you have a lower chance of getting in,
getting severe COVID-19,
going to the hospital,
or even death so the vaccines
are effective and they're safe.
But with the new covariance,
the BA for the BA5 of Omicron as
a lot of people who are vaccinated
are still getting infected.
So the idea is if we get a vaccine
that will also prevent the infection,
for Omicron,
we will have a lower rate of
infections in the future.
Doctor, when do we expect
this vaccine or booster?
Whatever you want to call it here?
When do we expect it to become available?
We were waiting for it
to come in October, but a couple of days
ago there was a notification from the
White House that perhaps we're going to
be able to be using it in September.
So this is a very very good news.
So just as soon as we will we have it.
We will let everyone know.
So coming up in the next few weeks
and of course another big theme.
Doctors a lot of kids go back
to school this week here in
Colorado and across the country.
How could that affect COVID numbers?
And how should we see the
virus from that lens?
This is the third year that we have
back to school for children after
the the beginning of the pandemic.
This is the third back to school
event and this time at in our state.
Schools are going to be open and
they're going to be in person.
What is interesting is that now
that we're living in a different
stage that we're thinking that
COVID has an endemic disease,
a lot of the precautions that we were
using to prevent the transmission or to
mitigate the spread are being lifted.
So now kids do not have to wear
a face mask in class.
They're taking away the six
feet separation between kids.
And but although vaccines are.
Suggested they're not mandatory.
So what we're going to see is an increase in
cases coming after the beginning of school.
Because kids are going to
start to spread it among them,
and maybe bring it to home.
So we need to be very careful with this.
So what additional advice might
you have for parents and for
kids as they go back to school?
There's two or three
things that we can still do.
I mean, kids are kids and
they're always going to be kids.
And I agree they need to be happy
and enjoy their back to school.
But if we have symptoms,
we need to test them and stay at home.
If we if one of our children
is with someone who's infected,
then it would be a better idea
to have them home until this is
over and not send them to school.
Because they can spread the disease.
And of course I'm never going
to stop promoting the vaccine,
so I think it's a very good idea to start.
If you haven't got your children vaccinated,
get started getting the vaccine
because now because of all of these
control measures being dissipated,
we're going to start to have more cases.
Speaking of the vaccine that can
you tell us about some of those
vaccine cleaning clinics that
you instead of CSS that arrests
are organizing please? We will be
at the Mexican consulate.
5350 leetsdale on Thursday from 9:00 to 1:00.
You don't have to be Mexican or you don't
have to have any business in the in.
The Council is just go there and
get a vaccine if you want to.
We will be there no problem and the other
one we're going to be at the resource
Larusso Thursday from 4:00 to 8:00.
They are requesting appointments there,
but people are invited to go there.
We are 343131 W 14th Ave close to.
Colfax and federal.
So if someone wants to go there later hours,
just call and we'll be there for you.
And finally, we'll be on Thornton on
a back to school event on Saturday.
So a couple of great options,
and once more thanks again
for joining us here.
Doctor Ricardo Gonzalez,
specialist at BCS Teresa.
We appreciate few minutes of your
time today and we'll of course
have continued updates in the
coming weeks about how COVID-19
is specifically affecting and
impacting the Hispanic community
here in the state of Colorado.
So doctor once again,
thanks for joining us today and we'll
see you right back here next next week.