‘There’s been a high rate of Covid-19 among pregnant individuals’: Doctor

Dr. Tom Tsai, Senior Fellow at the Harvard Global Health Institute; Assistant Professor in Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the latest on the coronavirus pandemic.

Video transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: New coronavirus infections in the US actually fell by 25% over the past two weeks. It's another hopeful sign that the worst of the Delta wave may be behind us. The US is now averaging roughly 114,000 new cases per day-- that is still a lot, but significantly better than where we were this summer. Joining me now is Dr. Tom Tsai, Senior Fellow at the Harvard Global Health Institute and Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Tsai, great to have you here on the show. So are you optimistic that Delta may have peaked here in the US and that we can finally get ahead of this virus?

TOM TSAI: Great to be with you, Alexis. I'm cautiously optimistic. I think as we've learned over the last year and a half, destiny is something that we can control. And that in this case means ensuring that we continue to have increased vaccination rates among those who are currently unvaccinated, ensuring that individuals who have had their first shot complete their course, and then, based on the CDC guidelines, those who are eligible for boosters receiving their boosters.

But another piece of that is that layered approach. We can ensure that the cases keep going down, hospitalizations keep going down by still following that layered approach of wearing masks in high risk situations. So we're not out of the woods yet, but it is encouraging that the data are all pointing in the right direction.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: You know, the CDC now seriously urging pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Something about like a third of all pregnant women in this country have gotten the COVID-19 vaccination. What are you hearing from folks? What is their greatest concern here? And what are the facts surrounding pregnant women and the vaccine?

TOM TSAI: That's right. The CDC announced about 31%, 32% of people have received vaccinations. And there's been a high rate of COVID-19 among pregnant individuals. Over 125,000 pregnant people have had COVID. That's resulted in over 16,000 hospitalizations and, tragically, over 161 deaths. And I think that's the most concerning part is that these are unnecessary deaths, these are preventable deaths.

And what we need to do is to really encourage vaccination rates. And this is a societal effort in terms of increasing access to vaccinations, increasing information to combat misinformation, and ensuring that our physicians, primary care physicians, OBGYNs continue to provide that information and counsel for pregnant people to become vaccinated-- because the consequences are severe. The CDC reports that among pregnant people with symptomatic COVID disease, there's a two-fold higher risk of hospitalizations requiring intensive care unit admissions and a 70% higher risk of mortality.

And this tragedy is twofold, especially in the pregnant population. So we really need to focus on this very vulnerable group of individuals and ensure that we can protect the health of pregnant people and babies as well.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: And what about the health of our younger people-- you know, those under 12 still unable to be vaccinated? What does the timeline look like to get that group of our population those shots?

TOM TSAI: Well, the data are rolling in. Pfizer has submitted information from their trials. But while we're waiting for the expanded authorization to children from 5 to 12, we're not left in the lurch. We still have other strategies in place. And that includes masking in schools, maintaining physical distancing, outdoor environments, really good ventilation within schools. But part of this is also a societal responsibility.

We can protect our children by ensuring that everybody else is doing their part. So as an adult, somebody over 12 getting vaccinated, you're also protecting the children by decreasing the risk of COVID transmission in your own communities. By wearing masks in indoor settings, you're also protecting children downstream, because you're also decreasing the risk of COVID-19 in the community. So everybody can play a part. And this is a stage of the pandemic where it's not just about the individual consequence or risk of the pandemic on yourself, but also about your responsibility and role in preventing transmission of this communicable disease.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I want to ask a question about boosters as it relates to pregnant women. You know, should they be getting the booster? And what if, you know, you were fully vaccinated and between the time of being fully vaccinated and present, you got pregnant-- should you go and get that booster shot?

TOM TSAI: Yeah, I think this is where the CDC, depending on the age, falls into a an area, you know, depending on if you qualify, also because you're a high risk setting because of your occupation as a health care worker or a teacher, somebody in the front lines who may be exposed to COVID-19. And that's why the CDC left some wiggle room to have that conversation between clinicians and their patients.

So I think there's an important conversation to be had. We're still a year and a half into COVID-19, still learning about the disease, information about the vaccinations, and the role of boosters is still something that we're all still learning with. But I think this is an important conversation for pregnant people, patients to have with their physicians.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: And finally, now, as we move into the end of the year, you've got the holidays coming, the winter months, especially in the Northeast, there's going to be more socializing indoors-- are you concerned that we're going to see another wave or, dare we say, perhaps a new variant of this virus?

TOM TSAI: Yeah, I think that's the concern from everybody is the-- and I think we the clock is ticking. We can help prevent the likelihood of yet another wave by ensuring that we continue to have the cases decrease, hospitalizations go down, and that is taking advantage of these precious weeks and months to encourage vaccination rates among those who are unvaccinated-- still staying vigilant in the areas where there are mandated masking. So you know, again, we get to control our destiny with this pandemic, but that means not taking our foot off of the pedal in terms of racing towards a conclusion of the pandemic.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, Dr. Tom Tsai, thanks so much for joining us today.