- Well, joining me nowis CBN medical reporter,
Lorie Johnson.
Lorie, thanks for being with us.
Why don't we startright where Ben left off
with the vaccine.
What is the latest thatyou're hearing on a vaccine?
Any news on that front.
- John last week, I spokewith the NIH director,
Francis Collins,
who is on the front linesof the coronavirus pandemic,
as you know,
and a lot of people aren'taware of the fact that he's a
very outspoken Christian, a manof God and a man of science.
And he is very excited.
He believes that there willbe a vaccine by December and
that it will be mass producedby that time and available
to the people who need itmost, at the end of the year,
beginning of next year,
we're talking about peoplewho work in hospitals
and nursing homes, people invery highly effected areas
and that by spring, John,
everyone in the UnitedStates who wants to vaccine
will be able to have that vaccine.
Of course, we know thata recent polls show
that one in five Americans say
even when a vaccine isavailable, they will reject it.
Francis Collins said that heunderstands a lot of people are
a little wary because the vaccinehas been rushed to market,
but the rushing aspect of it,
it doesn't have anything todo with the fact that it will
work and will be safe.
It's really more of themanufacturing that's being done
right now, rather than later.
- Dr. Collins, trying to givethe reassuring word there.
Well, plain and simpleto the great mask debate,
do masks work and should therebe a federal mask mandate
with a search now that we'reseeing in several States?
- Well, of course everyone hasso many different opinions,
but the scientific opinion is yes,
masks have been shown to work, but sure.
It's, you know,
we can understand why peopleare a little bit hesitant and a
little bit confused about the mask issue,
because remember at the verybeginning of the pandemic,
the surgeon general Jerome Adams,
who you just saw beggingpeople to wear a mask,
he came out and said to the nation, Hey,
don't worry about it, masks don't work.
And then later Anthony Fauci said
only the people who needto wear masks are those
who might think that they are sick.
And now of course science tellsus that it masks do work and
everyone should wear a maskwhen they go into public places.
So, but as far as like a national mandate,
the president is veryfirm that he doesn't think
that that's the right thing to do
as far as our own individual freedoms,
but that it would be niceif people chose to do that
when a mask is required.
- Lorie, we just have a few seconds left
to the other nationaldebate going on right now,
whether kids should go back to school
or completely virtual this fall,
is it safe for kids to be backin the classroom in person?
- Well again, the scienceis on the side of kids
going back to school.
We know that kids don't transmit the virus
as readily as we thought originally.
And that staying away from school,
John is so bad for childrenand actually affects younger or
lower income people morethan the upper income.
So that's just widens therich and the poor disparity.
This issue is going to bedecided on an individual school
district basis,
depending on what's going onin the individual communities,
not something that's going tobe judged on a national basis.
- All right.
CBN, medical reporter, Lori Johnson.
Thanks, Lorie.
- My pleasure.
