Doctor: We need to work on communicating 'what the vaccine is and how it works'

Dr. Preeti Malani, University of Michigan Chief Health Officer & Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Disease, joins Yahoo Finance's Melody Hahm to break down the latest coronavirus developments.

Video Transcript

MELODY HAHM: I want to get a check on the coronavirus hitting 19.1 million cases in the US, now a total of 333,000 deaths. Let's bring in Dr. Preeti Malani, University of Michigan's Chief Health Officer and a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases there. Thanks for joining us, Dr. Malani.

PREETI MALANI: Thanks for having me.

MELODY HAHM: So you just mentioned that you are planning to get the vaccine tomorrow. As you hear from your colleagues and all of the folks around you about the rollout so far, give us a pulse check right now. Do you feel like it's gone smoothly just from your purview and your vantage point?

PREETI MALANI: Yeah, so this is really an exciting moment, I would say, for my colleagues and for myself. And as I mentioned to you, I'm actually scheduled tomorrow morning to get vaccinated. So that's exciting. The rollout has been a little slower than expected. I just checked the CDC tracker a few minutes ago, and there have been almost 10 million doses distributed and about two million that have been given.

The initial goal had been closer to 21 million for the health care workers to try to really get everyone done before the end of the month. And clearly, that's not going to happen. But I would say that things have gone pretty smoothly and that there is this real sense of excitement in a good way because people are or are tired and really truly exhausted emotionally and physically from this year.

MELODY HAHM: And Dr. Malani, just looking through a really interesting survey you had conducted last month, over half of adults over the age of 50 have said that they'll get vaccinated against COVID-19. But many others want to wait. And people of color, who have been disproportionately affected from the coronavirus, are actually leaning towards not getting it.

I think there's some historical data there, of course, of misusing personal data and not trusting the government during this time. What is your efficacy here in getting doctors to really convince patients that this is the way to go, that science is backing this, that there may be some sort of initial achiness, nausea that comes with things like flu shots? I'm curious how you guys are talking about it as a medical community?

PREETI MALANI: Yeah, thanks, Melody, for asking about that. And this was our work with the national poll on healthy aging. And again, we polled older adults 50 to 80 back in October. So at that time, the idea of a COVID vaccine was a little bit theoretical. And obviously, in November, we got the great news about the Pfizer vaccine and Moderna vaccines, which have now been authorized for emergency use. And as you note, most people were interested in getting vaccinated, but it wasn't the same across the board. And in particular, younger adults-- so the 50-year-olds to 64-year-olds, women, people of color, Blacks, Hispanics, those with lower education and lower incomes were less interested.

And so I think from my standpoint, it's something to be aware of because there's a huge equity issue. And of course, some of these communities were disproportionately affected. So we have work to do in terms of communicating clearly on what the vaccine is and how it works. I am encouraged by so many people stepping forward-- health care workers-- and snapping photos of themselves, really showing excitement and saying, like, hey, I'm getting this, and you should too.

And ultimately, there may be some unknowns for people. But it's also a decision between getting infected potentially with coronavirus, which is a bad thing and a known thing and then taking some of that unknown risk, which should be limited at this point.

MELODY HAHM: And some other harrowing notes on the same topic-- in a now viral Facebook post yesterday, we found out that Dr. Susan Moore, who died of complications from COVID-19, she had posted that two weeks ago. She said she's a Black physician. She said the White doctor at the hospital in Indianapolis where she was being treated for COVID-19 had actually downplayed her pain. He felt uncomfortable giving her more narcotics, and she was actually sent home. I know she actually attended University of Michigan's Medical School. I'd love for your comment here. This seems to be an ongoing trend of the Black and Latinx community really being affected, even in the treatment side of things, right?

PREETI MALANI: Yeah, this is a devastating loss of Dr. Susan Moore. And as you mentioned, Melody, she is actually a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School, actually, several years ago. And like everyone else, I've been following this on social media. And of course, I have a number of friends who knew her personally. And you know, I think this points to the devastation that has been experienced across the communities, particularly communities of color.

And this was very much the case of what we saw in Detroit in the spring. And again, it doesn't matter who you are, that there are disparities in our health system, and we all need to do better. One thing about COVID is you do better if you get care sooner. And this is the case for the treatments that do exist. And in particular, one of the treatments that has been underused a bit is the monoclonal antibodies, which are being given primarily to older people who have symptoms and risk factors and are outpatients. They're not in the hospital yet.

And this has been something that's been discussed, is that, is the bar too high? Is it too complicated? And I'll just point out one thing. Just getting a test result still takes several days for people. And when you don't have a test result, you can't actually access some of these potentially helpful therapies. But this is a devastating loss. And we all need to do better.

MELODY HAHM: Yes, indeed. Thank you so much Dr. Preeti Malani, University of Michigan's Chief Health Officer, for that breakdown. We'll catch up with you next time.

PREETI MALANI: Thank you. And happy New Year.