Economy could open in late spring if enough people get vaccinated, says Dr Ashish Jha



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Dr Ashish Jha told CNBC “The News with Shepard Smith” on Tuesday that US states could start making decisions about opening businesses and economies sooner than expected if enough people get vaccinated.

“My relatively optimistic opinion is that we don’t have to wait until the end of summer or even the beginning of summer, that by the end of spring, if enough people have been vaccinated, you will really start. to see the number of cases. ”said Jha, who is the dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University,“ this will allow us to start opening up the economy further, so we don’t have to wait, and we just have to make sure that the infections – the high levels of infection that we have right now, that it gets better. “

President Joe Biden has set a critical benchmark in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. He has promised to provide states with sufficient vaccine doses for almost all Americans by the end of the summer. Biden said he would ask the government to receive an additional 200 million doses of the vaccine – half from Pfizer and half from Moderna. The deal would increase the country’s vaccine supply to 600 million shots.

“That’s enough vaccine to completely vaccinate 300 [million] Americans by the end of summer, the start of fall, “Biden told the White House on Tuesday.

To vaccinate 300 million people by September 22, the last day of summer, the country will need 600 million doses at a rate of about 2.4 million vaccines per day. This assumes that it is beyond the 23 million already stung. Biden said the government will start shipping 10 million shots per week to states over the next three weeks. This is an increase of almost 20% over what is currently delivered.

Johnson & Johnson is waiting results on its Covid vaccine early next week. According to CNBC’s Meg Tirrell, the company conducted its trial on three continents, including South Africa and Brazil, where the new, highly transmissible variants have been identified. This means that Johnson & Johnson’s findings could reveal important information about how vaccines designed around the original Covid strain work against emerging vaccines.

Dr Bruce Becker, assistant professor of behavioral medicine and social sciences at Brown University’s School of Public Health, told “The News with Shepard Smith” that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one vaccine and that immunity is therefore obtained in 14 to 21 days.

“The J&J vaccine can immunize twice as many patients for each donated vaccine supply – twice the coverage and immunity in less than half the time,” Becker said. “It is much greater efficiency in blocking the spread of Covid.”

Jha told host Shepard Smith that a single dose would help the vaccination effort “a lot”, but questioned the company’s production capacity.

“I think one of the less clear questions is how much stock of J&J vaccine do we have?” Jha asked. “Some reports say it didn’t go as well, that production didn’t go as well, but anyway, a dose as a vaccine is so much easier to administer.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday released a study that found the spread of Covid in schools to be very low with the proper precautions in place. Jha explained that the United States can open schools across the country, but “we have to do it” with preventative measures in place that include masks and effective ventilation.

Becker stressed the importance of preventive measures and even said that non-compliant students should be banned from school.

“The masking work, the social distancing work and the deadly disinformation that was spread by the previous administration and its voices led to our current dilemma,” Becker said. “Schools can be opened if the rules are followed to the letter.”

Biden said on Tuesday “it will be months before we can get the majority of Americans vaccinated” and that “masks and not vaccines” are the best defense against Covid as Americans wait for their vaccine.



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