RPT: Merck will help produce Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Dr. Ali Raja, Get Us PPE Co-Founder and Professor at Harvard Medical School joins the Yahoo Finance panel with the latest COVID-19 vaccine news.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: After Merck pulled their own production into a vaccine after less than promising results on their candidate, the company is said to be now pairing up to help production of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine. President Biden is going to be discussing that historic partnership a bit more in detail today. A very interesting move, as all the forces here in the medical community continue to serve to fight the common goal in getting COVID-19 under control.

And for more on that as well as the updated outlook for where we're going to see vaccines coming to reach schools and kids, we want to bring on our next guest, Dr. Ali Raja. He's Get Us PPE co-founder and professor at Harvard Medical School. He joins us now.

Dr. Raja, appreciate you being here. It is interesting because we did expect Merck to really start doing this. It's something that they said they would be willing to do to kind of help in the vaccine rollout fight here. What do you make of the partnership? And how important it is to really get J&J's vaccine to market as quickly for as many Americans as possible?

ALI RAJA: Zack, I think you hit the nail on the head earlier with your intro. I think Merck was really hoping that they wouldn't have to do this, that they were hoping to develop their own vaccine. And when that fell through, I think it was fantastic that they announced that they would love to help out if possible. the fact that President Biden is now announcing this is really exciting.

I haven't seen this kind of cooperation before. Keep in mind, Johnson & Johnson's vaccine takes time to develop. It takes about two months to brew it and ferment it in these large vats. They do it in this plant right outside of Baltimore. And then getting it all stored and frozen for shipment takes another month or so.

Having additional large pharmaceutical companies, especially those like Merck that have made vaccines for years-- Merck makes the MMR, the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine that all kids should be getting. And so they are well familiar with vaccine development.

So I'm so excited that they're jumping in and doing this. They're not alone. Sanofi is going to do this same sort of thing in France. They announced last week that they're going to be producing the J&J vaccine. So all these different companies are coming together for the production of as much vaccine as we can possibly get. And I love it.

AKIKO FUJITA: What does all this mean, Doctor, for the timeline to herd immunity? And this is a question we ask almost on a daily basis. But it does feel like, at least with the distribution process and the development of vaccines, things have really started to pick up. And yet, we're still looking at potentially summer for most people getting vaccinated. Has the timeline shifted at all for you?

ALI RAJA: Akiko, that's a great question. I think that's the question that everybody at the local and state level is constantly thinking about and asking. We do need and we are seeing much more ramp-up in terms of vaccine development.

It's the distribution that seems to be holding things up. And unfortunately, the unpredictable distribution. So if states aren't being told early enough how many vaccine doses they're going to be getting and when, it's tough to get those mass vaccination sites spun up, staffed up appropriately, and then get vaccine into patients' arms.

Similarly, while a lot of these mass vaccination sites are working really well, in order to go to them, you have to have transportation. You have to have time to dedicate a couple of hours waiting in line in your car. For a lot of people, that's just not possible. So we need vaccines sent to local pharmacies and local clinics as well, where people are used to going for their care.

Those logistics aren't well ironed out yet. So even though I'm excited about how much more vaccine is being developed and produced, I'd love to see that supply chain, especially on the distribution side, really firmed up quickly.

ZACK GUZMAN: And Dr. Raja, obviously, a lot of this so far is focusing in on adults, eligible adults who could be getting the vaccine. But a lot of parents out there and perhaps teachers as well very curious about the timeline for vaccines hitting not just high school-aged students but also elementary school-aged students. And Dr. Fauci was out earlier this week, talking about a timeline for elementary school children getting that vaccine by early 2022. So what does that look like to you in terms of how we should be trying to gauge this whole return to normal when we can move past those concerns about this spreading in schools?

ALI RAJA: Zack, I think that-- so for example, I've got two boys, the one's eight and one's six. All of the other parents I know, that's all that we're talking about is when can we get our kids vaccinated. But that's with the full understanding that, look, the vaccine really needs to go to older adults, adults with comorbidities, people who are, if they get ill, much more likely to die.

Now, don't get me wrong. Kids have been known to get severely ill. But it happens much more rarely. And especially given the fact that we have found that there's been good data that has shown that the virus hasn't been spreading in schools with appropriate precautions being taken, I think that restarting the school year, even without all the kids being vaccinated, as long as precautions are taken, it's still going to be perfectly safe.

I would love it if we could get the vaccine trials done for young kids under the age of 16, under the age of 12 done this summer so that we can get the vaccine to them this fall. But I don't think that's going to happen. I think we're so focused right now on making sure that we get new vaccines approved for adults, that we get production ramped up, that I think Dr. Fauci is right. I think we're probably not going to see kids the age of my sons, eight, six, 10, 11, 12, get vaccinated until late in 2019, or even maybe, hopefully--

I'm sorry. I'm thinking COVID-19 all the time. Late in 2021 or hopefully not, but possibly early 2022.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, Doctor, you're not the only one where the timeline is starting to get a little muddled here. You talked about the debate over school reopenings. And I want to see if we can sort of put that next to the conversation you just had about kids getting vaccinated because there have been concerns about kids being carriers. Is that still justified? Or has the science pretty much ruled that that's not necessarily as big of a concern as previously thought?

ALI RAJA: It's not as big of a concern as previously thought. Could it happen? Yes, of course. But the studies have shown that with kids wearing masks, with the appropriate distancing-- and again, the CDC is recommending 6 feet. The WHO is recommending 3 feet. But with appropriate distancing between kids, that virus transmission in schools is very low.

And so many states are looking at reopening schools. So for example, in the state of Massachusetts, we're doing that over the next few weeks. But we're making sure that it happens safely. And so I know that the studies have shown that it can be done safely. And I think that we're going to see many more states doing this soon because we need to get our kids back.

AKIKO FUJITA: Dr. Ali Raja, Get Us PPE co-founder and professor at Harvard Medical School, always good to talk to you.