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‘I’m a little cautious’ on Moderna deal for COVID-19 vaccine: Doctor

Dr. Kanika Monga, rheumatologist in Houston, TX joins Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers to discuss the deal between the United States and Moderna for 100 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Scientists say that a new nasal spray might actually help in the fight against COVID-19. So to chat more about this, we are joined now by Dr. Kanika Monga, rheumatologist in Houston, Texas. Dr. Monga, on that-- on the fight against coronavirus, we got this news about a nasal spray. I feel like we're getting news almost every day about the vaccine, something new to help fight the coronavirus.

So, I mean, I guess, put this into context for us. Is this something that we should be jumping up and down about?

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KANIKA MONGA: Well, it definitely sounds exciting. I think there is some promise behind it. Now the most important thing is, clearly, as of now, we're still looking for vaccination. We're still looking for amazing-- or any kind of method that can help us prophylactically.

So I found this, what you just mentioned, the nasal spray by these researchers at UCSF very interesting, because they were actually inspired by llamas. So llamas tend to have something called nanobodies. So similarly, what they've done is they've taken this antibody immune protein. It's very small, smaller than human antibodies, so they can modify it and engineer it in the lab.

And the way they're working-- the way it's working towards COVID-19 right now, researchers-- the researchers are saying, is that it's actually going to inhibit that spike protein on the virus from entering cells. So what that means is it could prevent it from entering and causing an infection.

So while all of this is very promising, the most important thing I'd like to mention is all of this data that's been presented has been preprint. And it's only been measured in a lab setting. So I want to see what this does in humans outside of the lab. So once that happens and we get good data, then I'm totally all for it.

KRISTIN MYERS: Well, I mean, that is the word-- that is the word, what does this look like outside of the lab? To that end, obviously, we got this news now that Moderna, thanks to Operation Warp Speed, already has a contract with the government for 100 million doses right now, an additional 400 million later. And yet they don't actually have a vaccine out as yet.

So I have to ask-- I mean, this Operation Warp Speed, I mean, it seems as if we're getting things ready to go once things are ready to go. I mean, how positively do you look particularly at this administration move as the right thing to do in order to combat this pandemic? Because we're-- what we're seeing right now is lightning speed from everyone in order to fight this virus.

KANIKA MONGA: Right. So my perspective is always going to be as a physician. I want something out there and something endorsed once I know that it's really safe and effective, and also available to most people. So I'm always a little cautious whenever things are endorsed, especially vaccinations, because until I see Phase III trials, which I believe are going to be underway soon for this vaccination, I'm not 100% confident that this is really going to be that-- that vaccination we're all holding our breath for.

So I can't really comment on the administration and their move. At the same time, I am-- we're all really excited about a vaccination. We all want one. We're all on the same team in that regard.

At the same time, I want to see more data. I want to see that this vaccination works on a large group of people, is safe for those people, and, most importantly, is effective. So I think we just have to wait a little longer to see what those results from their Phase III trial really show.

KRISTIN MYERS: So I want to ask you about the actual case counts that we're seeing right now. Hospitals in some of these hotspot areas, as we know now, in Texas, Florida, for example, hospitals say that they are filling up with people that have been infected. I mean, this is something that we have talked about a lot, this doomsday scenario where hospitals were going to be full and would not be able to accommodate any more patients.

As you're seeing these numbers spike in the Sunbelt states, how worried are you that we actually might hit that scenario?

KANIKA MONGA: Right. Luckily-- so I-- I'm in Texas right now. So I can definitely speak on behalf of Texas. So what's happening is we are seeing-- as you know, we crossed a 500,000 case mark, which is a lot of cases. Now in Texas, especially Houston, the cases in the hospitals are actually going down.

So I think the worry has been that people are taking that as OK, we're out of the woods. We can loosen those restrictions a little bit. Let's do some gatherings, socialize, even with a few precautions.

I would say with these case numbers going up, as you mentioned, across different states-- and even in Texas, our new cases were actually close to 8,900, which is significantly more than what they were even last week. So with these cases going up, I really want to emphasize that people still need to be more cautious, even more than ever before. Maintain that social distancing, great hand washing. Take all those preventative measures.

We're not out of the woods at all by any means. Because yes, these kind of spikes can definitely put the hospitals at risk again for that-- for the surge, which we're really not prepared for.

KRISTIN MYERS: So to that point of surges, why do we continue to keep seeing hot spots reemerging, even, in some cases? Is it all down to the fact that people don't want to wear their masks? They continue to go outside? They want to travel?

KANIKA MONGA: I mean, it's difficult, right? Now we've been battling with this pandemic for so many months, right? So it's hard as a person-- even as a physician, it's difficult to kind of-- where do you draw the line? How long can we go about in this way? How do we carry on with our normal life and go about it?

So the problem that I'm seeing is a lot of new cases now are tending to be younger people. So I think what's happening is a lot of our younger patients, a lot of them may be asymptomatic or not as symptomatic or as seriously ill as older patients. So maybe they're thinking they're out of the woods.

So they're socializing a little more, being a little more lax on those requirements. So as a physician, I really emphasize hold off. We're doing great. We just need to hold tight a little longer, hopefully, and get through this.

KRISTIN MYERS: And then what was a blow to folks like my father, huge football fans-- the Big Ten decided to cancel their conference. I mean, as you're hearing this, is it prudent that we just need to cancel all sporting events, at least the ones that were going to be coming up in the fall?

KANIKA MONGA: So I'm going to speak again as a physician. And I'm sorry for all the sports fans out there, my husband included. Of course, we're all-- we all love sports. We like watching sports.

But it is our responsibility to make sure that the health of our student athletes or viewers is of utmost importance, right? We don't want to create another hot spot because of these events and these games and kind of make the pandemic almost worse, right? We're putting too many lives at risk by taking that chance.

So what I would say is let's be optimistic. Perhaps things are not happening right now. But let's just hope that they're postponed. So we get a grip. We control what's going on right now, and hopefully just postpone to the near future.