Novavax has reportedly entered the final stage of coronavirus vaccine trials. Board certified emergency medicine physician in Houston, Texas, Dr. Richina Bicette, joins Yahoo Finance’s Zack Guzman to discuss.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: The trend line here in the US when it comes to coronavirus cases is not moving in the right direction. Recently the country topped 7 million documented cases, more than 20% of the world's total, I should point out. As especially worrying increases are coming from Midwestern states as infections have been spiking since the beginning of this month here, as we've seen that play out.

Now a lot more people are concerned when we think about approaching those winter months, as more people move indoors what that could do to our case count here and what it could mean for returning to that spike we saw play out earlier this year. And joining us for more on all of that is our next guest. Dr. Richina Bicette is a board-certified emergency medicine physician based in Houston, Texas. And she joins us now.

And Dr. Bicette, I appreciate you taking the time to chat with us. I know you're very busy through all this. But first, I just want to get your take on maybe what we're seeing play out here. Because we've had a few experts come on the show talking about how it could be tied to outbreaks on college campuses. There was an interesting new study out looking into the transmission risks tied to K through 12 schools as well.

And out of Brown, researchers there found that less than 1% of teachers and students have been infected since schools reopened, maybe downplaying some of those fears that a lot of people had that this uptick was tied to schools. So curious to get your take on where we're at now as we see cases coming up and how worried we should be.

RICHINA BICETTE: We should remain vigilant and continue to be worried. I think people don't realize how disproportionately the United States has been affected during this pandemic. And you hit the nail on the head. There have been almost 7 million cases in the United States. Compared to the worldwide number of cases, we account for almost 21% of worldwide cases of COVID.

Since colleges have opened, there have been outbreaks that have been linked to college campuses. And some experts are saying that outbreaks on in colleges and universities are related to almost 3,000 cases of COVID per day of the 40,000 that we're seeing right now. The latest study out of Brown University has been attracting headlines. Because a lot of people are proponents of sending their children back to school.

The problem with research is, is that sometimes we look at the tag line. And we don't know how to critically evaluate the methods and the actual data that's coming out of these research studies. So if you look at the study, they've only studied 550 schools across the United States. Now, for comparison, there are almost 100,000 public elementary and secondary schools. And then you add on another almost 40,000 public schools. In total, the US has almost 150,000 schools. Yet that study only looked at 550.

Of those 550, 250 of them have not yet returned to in-person learning. So of course their transmission of COVID is going to be low. Because the students and teachers are not interacting with each other. Furthermore, the study only spanned two weeks of time. So I don't think that the methods and the actual data that we've gotten out of that study is enough for us to lower our guard and think that it's completely safe to send children back to school.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, I would also kind of, I guess, maybe push back on the higher percentage transmission risk that we saw come out of prior research here when we think about students being back in schools as well. But one of those other worrying, I guess, areas of transmission risk is one that we've seen documented before time and time again.

When we think about bars and restaurants and indoor dining, interesting announcements from a few states, we had this earlier in the week when Indiana announced they would be moving to Stage Five re-opening, which would include nightclubs coming back. We haven't seen that in very many states here. But go for it, Indiana, I guess.

And then in Florida we got the update from Governor DeSantis. And I just want to read what he said. Because he is lifting occupational capacity restraints when it comes to indoor dining. And here's what he had to say on that. He said, quote, I don't think the closure of restaurants has proven to be effective. I get at how you could potentially have spread there.

But I also have to look at that. They've been able to use outdoors. But we can't have these businesses dying. So they're not going to be able to be closed by locals anymore. And they will be able to operate at the capacity that they're comfortable with. So that's going to happen. Doctor, how do you react to that in this decision to move-- to remove capacity limits?

RICHINA BICETTE: Well, interesting is one way to describe the recent changes that are occurring. I do think that we have to listen to the science. We need to listen to physicians who are the experts in terms of infectious diseases and the way that this virus is spread. From the beginning of the pandemic, public health officials have been saying that COVID-19 is spread via close contact, airborne and droplet particles.

So of course, if you pack people into a restaurant in a closed space where there isn't a lot of air circulating, there is going to be a higher risk of transmission of COVID-19. That's a fact. I think that people also don't realize that when we say that you should social distance yourself, it doesn't mean that you get to hang around your friends, and you get to hang around family members who are in other households.

That means that you should distance yourself from everyone who is not in the same household as you. When people typically go out to restaurants and go out to bars, they're not going by themselves. They're going to meet up with people that they haven't seen for a while. They're trying to get a bit of reprieve or hanging out with co-workers after work. And sitting at those tables, exchanging conversations, eating and drinking amongst each other is going to be a risk for transmission of this disease.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, and we've seen Florida do this before. I mean, they shut down at the end of June after that big spike occurred when they reopened maybe too quickly. It's-- the data would prove that they reopened too quickly last time. So we'll see how this one plays out. We'll continue to watch cases in that state.

But, I guess, optimistically on the front of increased and improved treatment options, I guess, out there, I mean, we have learned a lot more about how this impacts people. Granted, we still don't know completely everything we should know about this disease. But when you look at it, I mean, the death rate has dropped as cases continue to rise here. So maybe that's optimistic to point out.

I mean, when you look into that specifically, there have been new studies looking into a couple different things here, far beyond what I know. But what has been the treatment option improvement that we've seen there? Because it seems that new studies are pointing out interferon, a way that the immune response in people forms here, has been at the front of those cases that are increasingly worrying even young people and how some of those cases have led to death.

Talk to me about what we know now compared to what we knew back in March, and how that could prevent an uptick in deaths moving forward.

RICHINA BICETTE: Well, we know a lot more for sure than we did at the beginning of the pandemic. But we still have a lot to learn. That's absolutely certain. The only things that have been proven to be clinically effective in randomized controlled trials thus far are steroids and oxygen. Those are the only two treatments that we absolutely, unequivocally know work.

Everything else really is just trial and error. We're trying it because we don't have much in our arsenal. And we're trying to see and figure out what works. There have been talks of hydroxychloroquine. There have been talks of convalescent plasma. And while it may work for some, the data isn't robust enough to suggest that those are going to be definitive treatments.

So we're continually trying to put our hearts into something to figure out what works. But I don't think we're quite there just yet.

ZACK GUZMAN: Hydroxychloroquine being a good example of the FDA coming out and approving something and then retracting that as we learn more. But very interesting here, as Dr. Anthony Fauci has noted, too, it's a strange disease that impacts people differently across the board. We'll continue to watch all this. But appreciate you taking the time, Dr. Richina Bicette, board-certified emergency medicine physician in Houston, Texas. Thanks again.