U.S. has delivered 10 million vaccine doses as it crosses 4,000 deaths in a day for second time

Dr. Uche Blackstock, Advancing Health Equity CEO and Yahoo News Medical Contributor breaks down the latest updates in the COVID-19 crisis.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: New trial data points to some promising results for Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine. The report published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" showing the vaccine generated an immune response with few side effects in nearly all of its roughly 800 volunteers in early stage trials, raising hopes for FDA approval soon. Details of its advanced trials are expected later this month.

And we are seeing shares of Johnson & Johnson hitting a new high in the session today, up about 2%. Let's bring in Dr. Uche Blackstock. She is the CEO of Advancing Health Equity. She's also a Yahoo News medical contributor. And Dr. Blackstock, it's always good to get your perspective on what's developing on the vaccine front.

Johnson & Johnson, logistically, if you look at the vaccine, much more simple when you talk about one shot that's needed, also not necessarily needed for cold storage as well. How promising is this data when you look at overall just how slow the pace of vaccinations have been?

UCHE BLACKSTOCK: So the data is very promising. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, if approved under emergency use authorization, would be a game changer. Just the fact that it only has to be refrigerated, doesn't have to be frozen, only one dose. The problem that we're seeing, though, is that there are going to be some delays in manufacturing of that vaccine.

And so we may not have the supplies as early as expected. And so while we have the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine slowly trickling out, we really need to invoke that Defense Production Act to get the supplies needed to get Johnson & Johnson's vaccines out there into the arms of more Americans.

ZACK GUZMAN: And Dr. Blackstock, I mean, as we await more vaccines, not just the J&J one here, to reach Americans, but also the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that we're still seeing face issues in terms of distribution, we're also seeing case counts continue to rise, the Southwest particularly a space-- a region that's being watched closely here. And it's interesting because we saw, mainly in Arizona, they did a good job of controlling the spread earlier last year when people started wearing masks again.

But the governor, they are still resisting the idea of a statewide order for a mask mandate. Of course, that's one of the things President-Elect Joe Biden is going to be pushing for when he comes into office. But as a health care worker, talk to me about how frustrating that might be to see cases start to drop when people care about wearing masks, and on the reversal, when people maybe don't care as much. How important is it for that to be stressed when you see President-Elect Biden come into office?

UCHE BLACKSTOCK: Right, so we're in an incredibly grim period. We're probably headed for a grimmer period. And what we need at this point is for state and local leaders to really step up and put those public health measures that we know worked so well in place. And so at the bare minimum, every state should have a mask mandate at this point. There should be restrictions on large gatherings.

And then depending on how severe the situation is in a given state, that may require or necessitate closures of non-essential businesses. But the fact is is that we have not even seen the worst of this yet. And we really need the Biden-Harris administration when they come into office to really work in collaboration with state leaders to make sure that we have these restrictions in place to mitigate further spread.

AKIKO FUJITA: And on that front, we are expected to hear from the president-elect tonight a little bit more about his policy in tackling the virus itself. Going back to the vaccine, though, you know, we're now looking at the potential of three vaccines in the market if, in fact, J&J does move forward and get this FDA approval. We've heard a number of health experts, including Dr. Fauci, saying 85% to 90% of the population needs to be vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity. Our three vaccines in the market, is that enough to get you there?

UCHE BLACKSTOCK: No, that's not enough yet. We definitely need-- hopefully the AstraZeneca vaccine and several other ones, we need to have options for different communities, depending on where people are, if they're in rural communities, urban communities, depending on if there are no pharmacies in a certain area and we're dealing with community centers and schools really need to be able to flex to the situation in a given community.

I mean, the problem right now is that we do have a significant number of doses that are still on the shelves of hospitals and pharmacies. And we need to get those into the arms of people. So what needs to be worked on at this point is developing an infrastructure that is efficient that would allow hospitals and pharmacies to get those vaccines out there.

ZACK GUZMAN: All right Dr. Uche Blackstock, Advancing Health Equity CEO and Yahoo News medical contributor, appreciate you coming on here to chat with us on that today.

UCHE BLACKSTOCK: Thank you.