As Johnson and Johnson announced its latest deal with the United States to allocate 100 million doses of its vaccine for $1 billion dollars, Moderna priced in its vaccine for $32 to $37 dollars per dose. Dr. Carlos del Rio, Professor of Medicine, Global Health and Epidemiology at Emory University School of Medicine, joins The Final Round panel to discuss his views on coronavirus vaccines and how to make them affordable globally.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: All right, let's turn to the latest on coronavirus, because it is a story that we continue to cover day in and day out here on Yahoo Finance. And two pieces of news today on the vaccine front-- I guess three if you include J&J as well. But Moderna in its earnings call this morning saying that it will charge between $32 and $37 per dose for its coronavirus vaccine for some customers. And we also got that news after the bell yesterday from Novavax, early data there showing that its vaccine is generating promising immune response in an early trial there for that company.

So for more on this, I want to bring in Dr. Carlos del Rio. He's a professor of medicine and global health and epidemiology at Emory University School of Medicine. And Dr. del Rio, thanks so much for taking the time to join us this afternoon.

Let's start with that pricing news from Moderna, because I'm curious just to get your thoughts on this, because when you stack up Moderna against what it will likely cost for Pfizer, Moderna's vaccine is more expensive. So what do you think about the concerns that have been raised, just from a public health perspective? And then also, how do you think this vaccine should be priced?

CARLOS DEL RIO: Well, I'm a researcher. I'm an investigator. I'm also one of the people participating in the Phase Three Moderna vaccine study. So I will start by saying that.

But I'll say that I'm a researcher. I'm not somebody who is-- who knows how to price drugs. But I can tell you that at that price point, there are going to be many countries around the world that will not be able to afford the vaccine. And it is because-- it is critically important that we vaccinate everywhere, because having an outbreak somewhere is bad for everybody everywhere.

So we cannot just say we're going to immunize Americans, but don't immunize people in Mexico or Guatemala, because there's a continuous flow of people. And, therefore, you can't be immune from the virus. This is a disease that literally requires a global approach, the vaccine. We cannot think about each country independently taking decisions without thinking about the global approach.

So I think we need to figure out a way that it's more equitable and provide access to the vaccine at a price that other countries can afford it. Every country should be able to afford it.

AKIKO FUJITA: So what does that look like? I mean, what-- the reality is we've seen these countries bidding for these vaccines. We've seen partnerships being formed with these companies, as well as individual governments.

The question, then, becomes at the very beginning of this stage, when you are-- when these vaccines do come to market, who should get vaccinated first?

CARLOS DEL RIO: Well, I'll give you-- give an example. Polio vaccine, for example-- polio is a disease that we're trying to eradicate globally. And we're getting close to it. But the polio vaccine currently is about $1 per dose, and maybe up to $3 per dose maximum, but between $1 and $3 per dose.

So I would say that if we're going to follow a pricing structure that is going to give access to everybody globally, we need to think about a pricing structure very similar to what we have for the polio vaccine-- somewhere between the price point of $1 to $3 per dose. Anything above that-- so we're essentially a long difference right now of what Moderna is saying it's going to be charging.

ANDY SERWER: Yeah, but Doctor, isn't it the case that Moderna is just maybe putting this out there? And, of course, that we, in the US, will subsidize the rest of the world anyway, number one. And then number two, how many vaccines do you think are there going to be ultimately?

I mean, you're hearing promising things about Oxford and AstraZeneca, J&J, Endeavor, Pfizer, et cetera. There are things in Russia. There are things in China. What do you think?

CARLOS DEL RIO: Well, I think you're right. I think the price is not going to be the same for everybody. The COVID vaccine will need to have a price structure different for different countries, right?

But I think at the end of the day, we're going to have to have some sort of global approach. And I think it's going to-- somebody-- some organization like Gavi would be an ideal broker to decide what the price of the vaccine ought to be, and what do we do for pricing in different countries and how you think about it. Gavi was very involved, for example, in influencing the price of the pneumonia vaccine. And that made it accessible to lower income countries.

And then dramatically, the pneumonia vaccine-- the pneumococcal vaccine became available at $2 per dose, which is essentially a very, very cheap price, considering what it costs around the world. But by doing that, we avoided millions of kids dying from pneumonia. So I think an organization like Gavi working with UNICEF, with WHO, with the Gates Foundation, with other organizations is going to be critical in the pricing of the vaccines.

As far as vaccines out there, well, I'm very optimistic. Dr. Fauci has said that we need many shots on goal, but we also need many of those shots to be goals. So the more vaccines we have, the better it is. And right now, we have Moderna. We have AstraZeneca.

We have J&J. There's Novavax. There's multiple companies that are-- Pfizer-- that are putting forward coronavirus vaccines.

And I'm very excited, because I hope that not only one, but many of them make it. Because if many make it, I think we're going to really see-- I mean, we're going to need many, many vaccines to be effective in order to immunize billions of people around the world. This is not something that we can immunize just a few.

SEANA SMITH: Dr. del Rio, the conversation now that we don't have a vaccine and we're approaching the fall is, of course, the debate on opening schools and how this should be done. Is there a way to do this safely? So I'm curious, just from your perspective as a researcher, from what you know about this virus, how do you think we should be approaching this? And is there a way that we can open schools safely in the fall?

CARLOS DEL RIO: Well, at this point in time, in many parts of the country-- to me, opening schools is going to be dependent on the local conditions, right? And I think you need to go school district by school district, state by state. In some areas of the country and in some school districts, it may be totally possible to open schools. I'm thinking about New York. I'm thinking about Connecticut and other areas in the country where the epidemic has been controlled.

In other areas of the country, where the epidemic hasn't been controlled-- for example, in Georgia and Atlanta, where I live-- I think that you cannot open schools right now. And I think the debate about-- we made the mistake of opening bars and now want to open schools. And I can tell you that in this epidemic, you have to decide-- are you going to open bars or are you opening schools? But I don't think you can have both open at the same time.

And I really think that it's going to be very important that local data be seen and that schools open when there is-- there is an amount of cases which is reasonable. And if you look at, for example, the White House recommendations, I would like to see under 10 cases per 100,000 population. And I would like to see a prevalence on people being tested under 5%.

If those conditions are met, I think you can open schools safely. If you're having over 100 cases per 100,000 population, if you're having prevalence of testing over 10%, I think we have too much transmission in the community. And opening schools is not going to be safe.

SEANA SMITH: And Doctor, talking about that transmission rate, does that apply also, in your view, to sports? Because we're having this debate about whether or not we'll likely have an NFL season, or what college campuses should do, whether we should have a college football season. Where do you stand on that?

CARLOS DEL RIO: Well, again, I'll give you my disclosure. I'm part of the advisory committee to the NCAA. So I'm speaking on behalf of myself. But also, my opinions in the NCAA documents, which I fully endorse.

I think, again, you need to look at your local epidemiology. But in many places around the country, to think about having schools and having football and having fall sports right now, it's a little bit like arranging-- having the Titanic hit the iceberg and we're trying to decide whether the band should play at 7:00 or 8:00 PM. It's really not going to make any difference.

We have a major emergency. And we need to take care of the problem. If we want sports, fall sports, it's going to probably going to be very limited. And it's probably going to be limited to certain areas of the country.

I think what we see in professional athletes and professional sports has been very interesting. I think the NBA, by creating a bubble, has been able to have a season and to play. I think the Major League Baseball had not created a bubble. And as a result, we've seen a case-- we've seen infections. We've seen outbreaks.

So I think if you think about a bubble concept, that probably needs to be what we do in some sports. But the reality is, I think, that in football, it's going to be-- it's going to be complicated to play in many areas of the country, simply because there's too much contact, there's too much transmission, and there's too much risk.

And again, the students may not have a lot of risk. The players may not have a lot of risk. But I worry about others. I worry about coaches. I worry about officials. I worry about other people who may get infected and who potentially end up getting very sick.

SEANA SMITH: I agree with you. Well, Dr. Carlos del Rio, Professor of Medicine, Global Health, and Epidemiology at Emory University School of Medicine, thank you so much for taking the time. It's great to have your perspective on the show today.

CARLOS DEL RIO: I'm delighted to be with you. Thanks for the invitation.