There is now an emergence of a variant that could be more transmissible and evade the vaccine: Health Justice Founder

Dr. Oni Blackstock, Health Justice Founder & Executive Director joins the Yahoo Finance Live panel to discuss the latest COVID-19 news.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: As we continue to see vaccines roll out here in the US and across the globe, we got a sobering warning yesterday from CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, warning that our progress that's been made on the vaccine front could be jeopardized almost in an instant if we saw a more catastrophic variant emerge somewhere in the globe in the way that we've seen that UK variant spread across the globe. It's a rather important reminder here at the speed in which we should get these vaccines out and highlighting the need for that here. I want to bring in our next guest, Dr. Oni Blackstock-- is Health Justice Founder and Executive Director.

She joins us now. And Dr. Blackstock, i mean, the warning has been talked about for a while around these variants. But in your estimation, I mean, is just getting the vaccines out quicker doing enough? Or should we be upping kind of our research into these variants, since we know it took us a while here, at least in the US, to really start identifying and diagnosing this?

ONI BLACKSTOCK: Right. Thank you, Zack and Akiko, for having me on this morning. Yes, obviously the emergence of variants that could be more transmissible, as well as could evade vaccine immune responses, is very concerning. I think, to your point, really increasing and accelerating the pace of the current rollout-- not just here in the United States, but throughout the world. We have to understand the ways in which we're interconnected, I think this pandemic has shown us. And so even if we have an accelerated rollout here in the United States, if we have less resourced or developing countries not having access to the vaccine, that is going to impact us, because this virus knows no boundaries.

And I think also to your other point around what else can be done, the CDC, I know, has increased their capacity for monitoring the emergence of variants through various genomic sequencing. And so I think ensuring that local and state health departments have the funding support necessary, so that they can carry out sort of mass genome sequencing, would be very helpful-- because a lot of times, we may not be detecting a variant, because we're not testing for it. And so we need to be doing genome sequencing really routinely to ensure that we're detecting emerging variants.

AKIKO FUJITA: And Doctor, even as more and more Americans get vaccinated, there is an ongoing debate about who should be next in line just given the limited supply. You wrote an op-ed recently talking about how the age cutoff should be lowered, especially for Black Americans, who have been heavily affected by this virus. Is it time for a pause and a bit of a reset maybe to see who actually has been vaccinated, who should be prioritized? Or do you think the guidelines that have been put out by the CDC should hold?

ONI BLACKSTOCK: So I think, as the rollout has continued, we've seen inequities in who is getting access to the vaccine. So for instance, Black Americans account for 13% of the US population, about 15% of COVID-19 deaths as of late, but only 5% of persons who've been vaccinated. We also saw last week life expectancy data being released. And saw that for the first half of 2020, there was overall a very sharp decline in life expectancy. But that decline was greatest for Black Americans. It was about a three year drop as opposed to a one year drop.

And so we know that for myriad reasons that black Americans have a lower life expectancy. And we believe-- my sister and I, who co-wrote the piece with me-- that this should be taken into account. For instance, in Alabama, which during phase 1B had a cutoff of 75 years or older, about 80% of Black people in Alabama lived in counties where the life expectancy was below 75. So having these cutoffs, these fixed cutoffs, really can exclude vulnerable groups of people who could benefit from getting the vaccine.

ZACK GUZMAN: And lastly, I mean, it seems like a lot of effort had been going into that to kind of, at first, just making sure that we were going to have enough vaccines for everybody. It sounds like we're more than enough there now, especially with Johnson & Johnson vaccine coming through. But when it comes to maybe what other logistical hurdles are now there, it seems like more is now focused in on actually getting those shots into the arms of Americans, whether they are kind of prioritized along racial lines. But talk to me about what you're seeing now on that front, because a lot of talk around pharmacies-- local pharmacies, big chain pharmacies-- and hospital workers as well. What's going to need to change to increase that rate?

ONI BLACKSTOCK: Yeah, so we really need to bring the vaccine to where people are. We heard a lot about, quote, unquote, "vaccine hesitancy," which is really about really concerns-- valid concerns-- that people have about the vaccine. And so when people are concerned about something, but they're barriers to, for instance, getting a vaccine appointment, it's going to be more likely that they will be less motivated to then get that appointment if they already have concerns about the vaccine and they're hearing that, for instance, supply is not available.

So we need to ensure that people know that when the vaccines are available for them that they can get it-- and that we need to also bring vaccines to people using mobile units, using community-based organizations that are already very well connected with community members and seen as credible and trustworthy. We really need to get out those folks who may not be as inclined to come, for instance, to a mass vaccination site and might want to go to a site that's much more familiar and intimate.

AKIKO FUJITA: OK. Dr. Oni Blackstock, it's good to talk to you today-- Health Justice Founder and Executive Director.