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'We are still dealing with the unknown' Doctor on Covid-19

Dr. Adrian Burrowes, Family Medicine Phy. & CFP Physicians Group CEO, joined Yahoo Finance to discuss the latest on covid-19.

Video transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: Dr. Adrian Burrowes, family medicine physician and CFP Physicians Group CEO. It's good to have you here, doctor. And let's pick up on that booster shot situation. That's nothing out of the ordinary. I mean, we all get booster shots or new shots every year for the flu. So should we be discouraged by this potential Pfizer necessity for a booster shot?

ADRIAN BURROWES: No, not at all. I think that common sense will dictate that we probably expected that this would happen, especially for anyone who has had COVID-19, like I did back last July. I had antibodies for a good three to four months. And then all of a sudden, they went away. The data is showing that most people who are vaccinated have at least six months' worth of immunity, but it is possible, highly possible that you may need a booster going forward and maybe even an annual shot going forward as well.

SEANA SMITH: Doctor, [INAUDIBLE] mentioned the fact that new cases have been stuck right around 65,000 a day when we have more and more people getting vaccinated day in and day out. Why hasn't that number dropped?

ADRIAN BURROWES: A great question. So one of the things that's preventing it from dropping is that we're still having a lot of people that don't want to get the vaccine. We are vaccinating a lot of people. But, you know, I work in healthcare and I-- and the numbers are almost 50% in terms of providers who have not been vaccinated, you know? So, as long as people continue to refuse vaccination, we're going to always be struggling with these numbers. People are getting back COVID-19 fatigue and are going back to their normal ways of life, even though we haven't really gotten hold of the virus yet.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Doctor, is there any benefit-- let's say if you got Pfizer or the Moderna vaccine-- going out and getting one of the other vaccines, whether it be Johnson & Johnson when that's allowed to be given again, or in the case of Moderna, you know, if you got Moderna, get the Pfizer vaccine. Is the mixing of any consequence?

ADRIAN BURROWES: Yeah, so there's so much unknown with these vaccines that I would be highly against people trying to mix vaccines. We have very good vaccines out right now, especially with Pfizer and Moderna. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, as you all know, was held last week. The AstraZeneca vaccine has not actually come to the US yet because of its issues. And one of the issues with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, you know, is that very rare incidence of clotting. And so we don't know how these vaccines will mix together. And so, it's not something that we should be looking for right now.