Why Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine update is ‘welcome news’

Emergency Medicine Resident Physician, UT Health San Antonio, Dr. Owais Durrani, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss Johnson & Johnson announcing that there vaccine is effect against the Delta variant of COVID and the importance of continuing a vaccination push on the grass roots level.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: All right. Thanks so much, Angelie. Let's continue this conversation we want to bring in Dr. Owais Durrani, an emergency medicine resident physician with UT Health San Antonio. And Dr. Durrani, let's start with the J&J news out today, the fact that it protects against the very dangerous Delta variant. I guess how significantly would this potentially help control Delta variant outbreak here in the US?

OWAIS DURRANI: Yeah, I think it's really welcome news in my day to day practice. I have patients. There's 11 million patients that have gotten the J&J vaccine and in the United States. And I see those patients. And a lot of times they feel like they are left behind in terms of data coming out in terms of how protected they are. So today is really welcome news in terms of showing us that at least eight months out, they still produce a robust immune response against a variety of variants. And that includes the more transmissible dangerous Delta variant. It gives us an indication that--

- I'm sorry. I interrupted you. Keep going.

OWAIS DURRANI: Well, it gives us that indication that vaccines still work. And that if you're not vaccinated, it should give you that more of an urge to get vaccinated because as these parents kind of spread, there's more of a chance that they might mutate into something that would render our vaccines not as effective. So let's stop that by getting vaccinated.

- All right. So we get this, I don't want to say mixed messages, but I was listening to the government officials this morning on the television talking about the fact if you are vaccinated, nothing to worry about. Is that an absolute fact?

OWAIS DURRANI: So I wouldn't say nothing to worry about. But I'd say less to worry about. So even with the best quoted data in terms of efficacy, vaccines are somewhere in the low 90% range effective. So that means that every 100 times you have an encounter with coronavirus particles, there's that 5% to 6%, 7% chance that you might get some type of infection from it. That being said, if you're vaccinated and you're amongst other people that are vaccinated, I think you have low concern and should have low concern.

You also are essentially completely protected against the most feared consequence of COVID-19, which is death.

SEANA SMITH: Doctor, there was a story earlier this week in the journal saying that some vaccination sites are being shut down because the demand just simply is not there. How concerned are you when you hear news like that just about what this could mean for a potential wave this fall?

OWAIS DURRANI: Yeah. So I think we as a country need to shift our strategy when it comes to vaccination. So initially, we had lots of mass vaccination campaigns across the country. And they were really effective. Now those that are going to get, or were going to get vaccinated, those types of facilities have already done so.

So I'm not as concerned about those facilities shutting down but I do want to make sure that those resources are then resourced to the local grassroots level. And so that includes making sure that local physicians offices have access to vaccines and other kind of local community type settings have access to vaccines. Because surveys have shown that amongst those that are unvaccinated, a big portion of those folks would get vaccinated if their pediatrician approached them about getting their kid vaccinated, or if their family physician approached them about themselves getting vaccinated.

So that's where we need to really kind of shift those resources to.

- What about there was an article that said, it's time to fully approve the mRNA vaccines. Where do we stand on that? I think a lot of us were under the misperception that they had been approved. I guess it was just emergency use authorization.

OWAIS DURRANI: Yeah, that is correct. I think the approval agencies are really taking their time in terms of reviewing all the data. I personally think they should grant full authorization. We have more data on these vaccines than almost any other medication that's ever been approved for use. We have global data, we have data from here in the United States, we have complete phase three trial data. And so I think we need to get that full approval.

That will help really kind of facilitate that grassroots effort that I was talking about, getting those vaccines into private entity hands. And so whether that's private corporations vaccinating their employees, or whether that's private physician offices doing that. And so I think that's a major step that needs to happen sooner rather than later. And I'd like to see it happen before the fall and potential other surges.

SEANA SMITH: Doctor, we're coming up on July 4th weekend. A lot of people are going to be gathering with friends and family. Hopefully a lot of that will be outdoors as people celebrate July 4 with barbecues and that sort of thing. But I guess do you have any concerns heading into this holiday weekend?

OWAIS DURRANI: So the answer is yes. But I think we can be prudent about it. So we're expecting about 50 million folks to be traveling. We also for the first time in many, many weeks have had a 10% increase in cases versus a decrease. So I think concern is natural and it's a good thing. It means we're vigilant and keeping COVID-19 on our radars. That being said, as I mentioned earlier, I think if you're vaccinated and you're going to a place where others are vaccinated, especially in an outdoor environment, you have less to worry about.

That being said, we also have places like Travis County in Austin, where Austin, Texas is as amongst kind of the better vaccination rates when you look at national data. You go two counties over and you have really, really low vaccination rates. And so it's really going to be kind of juggling what type of environment you're in, and then making those wise decisions for yourself, for your kids, and for your family.

SEANA SMITH: Dr. Durrani, thanks so much. Have a great weekend.