Dr. Ali Hassoun Discusses Coronavirus Issues, Part 1

Live in huntsville, sydney martin, waay-31 news.

>> najahe sherman: thank you, sydney.

We are joined tonight by dr. ali hassoun, an infectious disease expert at huntsville hospital to discuss the search for a vaccine right now.

>> dan shaffer: thanks for joining us tonight again, dr. hassoun.

>> dr. hassoun: thank you for having me.

>> dan shaffer: let's start here a.

Lot of people seem distrustful of a coronavirus vaccine.

Nearly half of americans say they won't get the vaccine if one becomes available.

Should everyone get it and if so , why.

>> dr. hassoun: i think if we have safe and effective vaccine i think everybody should get it to help get over this pandemic and get people back to their normal life as much as possible after the covid vaccine ends.

So the vaccine is going to be essential to cut down on the cases and reduce transmission.

On the other hand, i agree with the community and the people where we really need more information about these trials and about the studies and published journals where everybody can have access to it and judge on it.

In addition to the monitoring board that's looking after all these vaccine trials.

So i think it is important to do it but we need to be also more and more transparent about all the information about these studies.

>> najahe sherman: dr. harris told us he thinks moderna will be the first to develop a vaccine.

We know johnson and johnson recently paused its clinical trial.

So in your opinion which company will be the first to reach the finish line when it comes to a vaccine?

>> dr. hassoun: yeah, you know, again, i think it's really difficult because these possible things that can come up where a safety issues or concern about patient develop reaction is unpredictable.

You hope at the moment between pfizer, moderna, astra zeneca and johnson & johnson if they continue doing their trials with no issues of safety, we're going to hear about their data at the end of the year or early next year.

So if six of them come together because they can compare and look at what is the best, most effective treatment as a vaccine but also what is the most safe and have no issues and problems. so it's really going to be difficult to tell which one because anything can happen in between now till a vaccine study is finished.

>> dan shaffer: as we mentioned johnson & johnson had to pause their clinical trial because one of the patients became sick.

We know different medications can have obviously side effects.

We should mention though we don't know in if this patient who got six was in the vaccine side of it or the placebo side of it.

The illness may not have anything to do with the vaccine.

Let's assume he is in the vaccine trial.

How important is it if even one person has a neg ty reacttion to a vaccine during the trial?

>> dr. hassoun: dan, it's really going to depend on what kind of reaction.

We know when we look at studies and research, we look at adverse event and serious adverse event and on the top of that, if there is any death related event.

In each one of -- there's a step in these.

If it's a minor reaction, that's not uncommon to happen.

If it's a serious adverse event, depending on did it affect, for example, the central nervous system, the heart, other places or other things related, is it definitely related to the vaccine?

So these are all important to know to decide would i take it or would i not, how safe but at the same time how effective going to be and you weigh the benefits and risks between each of these.

So there's a lot of information we're going to need to get to decide yes, even though there might be one patient or let's say 1% 1 side effect or adverse event, is that going to be okay in compared to its major benefit with reducing the clearing the pandemic.

These are all important questions to answer.

Hopefully.

>> najahe sherman: dozens of states are seeing a spike northbound coronavirus cases right now and health officials are warning that this could be the start of another wave of the virus here in north ab alabama there are nearly 150 inpatients until the huntsville hospital systems facilities.

So dr. hassoun, how concerning is this recent increase?

>> dr. hassoun: you know, i can tell you, and you've heard me before, this is not surprising because we expected this going to happen.

It is concerning because it's slowly going up and we really haven't seen, yet, the flu season.

We haven't seen major change in temperature.

Because what we expect as the temperature get colder, people going to stay indoors more.

So there's going to be more transmission.

I think the explanation currently of why we're seeing increase, you know, schools all of it open.

There is more exposures.

Sports ongoing.

So there's a lot of events happening that's increasing this and it is concerning, definitely >> dan shaffer: yeah.

So the mask order still in effect but alabama's resphrik tions are loosening somewhat.

Bars are staying opening, serving alcohol later.

These are some of the changes in your mind that are leading to this spike, you think?

>> dr. hassoun: i think so.

You know, and it's -- what is important, we wanted people to try to get back to normal as much as possible.

But at the same time, we need to be aware that if there is increasing cases, we need to get back, reverse what we do, not completely but partially.

So we can control things.

So we don't want a complete lock down but we want to do things on a safe basis so if we have increasing cases, we close bars earlier.

Close restaurant earlier.

Make sure capacity get less.

Even virtual education go back.

We need to think about it like that so we can manage our life and we can control the virus at the same time.

>> najahe sherman: one of the nation's top health experts, dr. anthony fauci, says relying on herd immunity is ridiculous.

Explain once again what is herd immunity and what are your thoughts on this?

>> dr. hassoun: herd immunity is basically hoping people get exposed to infection, whether virus or bacteria, and it get to be widespread infection among population.

And by that because the body will usually develop some immune response, as you develop immune response, you're going to be able to control the viral transmission because you -- like the majority will have some immunity against that infection.

The problem with this concept is a lot because you do not want to wait to have herd immunity, which usually mean 60 to 70% of people will be immune wha.

That means, there's a widespread infection.

This is a deadly virus.

I cannot accept people have severe infection and people die from it awaiting for that.

That's a problem.

>> dan shaffer: dr. hassoun is sticking around to discuss the pandemic's impact on the country and north alabama.

>> najahe sherman: stay with us, you are watching waay through 31 news at 6:00.

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