Doctor reacts to U.S. travel ban changes

Baylor College of Medicine Assistant Professor Dr. Sara Andrabi joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the requirement of vaccinations for foreign travelers and other trends amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Video transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: A let me keep with the theme, first, with the travel. Any reason to be concerned if that becomes the new protocol-- you've got to prove vaccination and test negative within three days of travel if you're coming from a foreign country?

SARA ANDRABI: Thank you guys for having me on the show today. So with this policy, like you guys mentioned, people are going to need to show full proof of vaccination. Prior to boarding planes, you're going to need a COVID-19 test. There's going to be some enhanced contact tracing, which is something a little bit newer for the US-- and masking is going to be required. But there's no mandated quarantine.

So even though they are enhancing contact tracing by requiring airlines to collect information, such as phone numbers and email addresses, for all US-bound travelers-- and the new policy adds more stringent testing requirements for unvaccinated US travelers-- there's still that concern of the mandated quarantine. I mean, just looking at the numbers, there's tons of this virus circulating in the US already.

And I also get the argument that there are many individuals who have not seen their family members since this pandemic started. So I think the enhanced contact tracing that comes with this policy is a step in the right direction. The icing on top would be if they considered having a quarantine mandate, because it is possible for travelers to get infected the day before they travel. And this could be too soon to appear positive on a post-arrival test.

SEANA SMITH: Doctor, I also want to get to the other big headline that Adam mentioned there-- Pfizer saying that its vaccine is safe for kids ages 5 to 11. I guess, to what extent is that going to help mitigate the spread of the virus that's currently happening in this country? And what do you think that timeline potentially looks like for getting kids of that age vaccinated?

SARA ANDRABI: Yeah, so there have been some very positive results from a study done by Pfizer and a German company called BioNTech in children ages 5 to 11. There's a phase II, III trial that involved about 2,200 kids that found that the vaccine was safe, it was well-tolerated, and it produced a robust neutralizing antibody response. The children were given a two-dose regimen of 10 micrograms that was administered 21 days apart, and a similar dose of 30 micrograms was given to people who are ages 12 and older.

And the information couldn't come at a better time, because pediatric cases have risen about 240%. 46% of US adolescents are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and vaccinating the 5 to 11 age group could protect another 9% of the US population from COVID-19. Hopefully sometime in the fall I think we should start seeing that roll out.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Well, fall is coming-- I think first day of fall, I think, is coming up sooner than we expect. It's this week? Forget my dates-- let me ask you this, those of us who are not kids were thinking we were supposed to get our booster shots, depending on when we got our second vaccination. A lot of confusion with the administration-- FDA saying 65 and older, but we're going to get more guidance on that. As a doctor, how frustrating is it that we don't just have a very simple, clear cut go or don't go?

SARA ANDRABI: Yeah. And this is something we've been reading about. State health officials are already bracing themselves for the confusion that they're going to have to manage with expectations about boosters, because President Biden announced last month that they would be widely available to adults this week or later on, and then in last month's announcement, he said September 20, which is today, for the start of booster rollouts for third shots available to all adults who are eight months out after completing their two-shot regimen.

And now a group of advisors to the FDA reframed the proposal for that booster to be recommended for ages 65 and older and also high risk for severe disease patient populations. And Dr. Fauci said the goal of this decision was to prevent people from getting serious disease who are at-risk, but that there's more to come on this. And they're constantly monitoring the situation to see what we need to recommend.

SEANA SMITH: Doctor, does that make sense to you just in terms of the decision that they did come to and what we could potentially see, then, over the next coming weeks and months?

SARA ANDRABI: So, I think it's always-- you know, we've seen this already with with the surges that the vulnerable populations, like those that are immunocompromised, like the elderly made up most of the hospitalizations from COVID. Now, we're seeing more in unvaccinated. So I think they're trying to do, like, a targeted approach to the higher risk populations. And once they get those done, then they're going to probably move on to the next, similar to what we saw with the initial vaccine rollout.

ADAM SHAPIRO: So the other vaccines-- we spent a lot of time talking about Pfizer. Whatever happened with Moderna, and its approval, and its booster? Where do we stand on that? Is that going to be-- I can only imagine it's a plus once they finally say, go for it.

SARA ANDRABI: Yeah, definitely. We're still waiting on more information from Moderna, and also Johnson & Johnson, right? Those are, like, the top three that were used in America. And I know one of my own family members is vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson, and she keeps asking, when are we going to get more guidance on boosters? And I think we haven't seen the data yet.

As soon as it comes, just like with Pfizer, I think they're going to push to get it approved.

SEANA SMITH: Doctor, as we enter the fall season, like we were just talking about, and then, of course, the winter months, what's your number one-- your biggest concern right now at this point in the pandemic?

SARA ANDRABI: So I think my biggest concern is that unvaccinated people are increasing the chances for more COVID variants. We've seen how dangerous these variants have been. The number of unvaccinated people in the United States is a key reason that the variants are emerging.

The virus replicates quicker in unvaccinated people. And I'm concerned that that means new COVID-19 cases are going to continue to rise. With these variants, what happens is the spike protein mutates. And so the virus can replicate faster. And so when you have enough of these mutations, a new variant can result. And with the Delta variant, those mutations have caused the virus to replicate faster in larger numbers and made it more contagious.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Just want to put in the plug, doctor, that everyone can go get their flu shot now. Some of us already got them. I get a gold star for that. Dr. Sara Andrabi is Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, we appreciate every time that you join us to talk about COVID-19. All right.