Coronavirus Latest: Thursday, September 24
On Thursday, United airlines announced that it would offer all Hawaii-bound passengers coronavirus tests. Lufthansa announced similar plans for all passengers, as some European airports have decided to pilot test a ‘self-service’ coronavirus diagnostic test invented in Israel. Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani joins The Final Round to discuss the latest on the coronavirus.
Video Transcript
MYLES UDLAND: Let's turn our attention now to everything going on with the coronavirus. And it's really been a busy 24 hours, Anjalee Khemlani, when it comes to the FDA approvals, what people say they will do, won't do. Of course, you would find, expect nothing less than Trump and Andrew Cuomo disagreeing with one another. But that is, indeed, the situation we find ourselves in.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That is correct, Myles. Unfortunately, we are watching yet another political back and forth over the vaccine timeline, which as we know, has been clearly sort of extended further than what initial hopes had been on that. So while Trump continues to tout the idea of a vaccine by election day or some sort of approval, most companies, especially the ones in the front, in the lead, are saying that that's not really going to be possible.
And we had FDA commissioner Hahn yesterday in front of the Senate Health Committee talking about what that timeline looks like, and reinforcing the idea that there will be no political pressure accepted on this front. And of course, behind all that there is a push to actually strengthen the observation period of these phase 3 trials, extending the period of time, which would push out any kind of authorization or approval to closer to Thanksgiving.
Right now, everyone was looking really at the end of October as sort of that initial indication. And maybe a few weeks after that, getting some sort of emergency use authorization. So that may be pushed out. While those guidelines have not come out yet, we did hear Trump yesterday sort of undercutting that idea, saying it seems to be a political move. And the White House does have the authority to deny that. And we had Health Secretary Azar sort of reinforce that message, saying that the things that the FDA is pushing for have already been addressed.
So really just still waiting to see what happens with those guidelines and sort of where things all lay. As we know, there is a lot of concern over what happens to those vaccines. Meanwhile, really big, as you mentioned, busy 24 hours. We heard that United Airlines is now going to be offering COVID testing, an option for COVID testing prior to flights from San Francisco to Hawaii. And that falls in line with what we've kind of been seeing as sort of these optional offerings both in airports, as well as by airlines themselves.
Lufthansa also has been doing similarly. We've seen in Newark Airport, there is an option to get COVID testing, as well as in some European airports, they're looking at sort of point of care right there, being able to get a saliva-based test. And so all this goes to sort of that push as we've seen for a businesses to continue operating with that option available. But it's unclear whether or not this is something that could be covered in the future. There's still that cost to the consumer slash patient at this point in time. So waiting to see how that all pans out. There are, the strategy is to roll that out in other major airports as well pretty shortly.
MYLES UDLAND: And then, Anjalee, I guess on the testing side, and I think I saw someone say, like oh, so we've got it working in professional sports, people get tested every day. Now we're going to get business travelers going. Then I guess the rest of us can get tests. I guess in the context of the virus itself, how this coronavirus spreads and how COVID spreads from person to person, is, like can you still spread the disease even if you are testing negative?
Are we sure about the efficacy of these tests? I guess I'm just asking, do we have to be able to test everyone all the time? Or is it really something else about how we can mitigate the spread of the virus? Because these are very expensive, very time-consuming measures that are not available for everybody. But is it even the best way to kind of get us back towards something like normal?
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That has been an ongoing debate. Quite honestly, I don't have the definitive answer to that question. There are some in the public health space who believe that too much testing is not very useful, and others who say that at least it gives some sort of indication. I spoke to an expert today that sort of explained it as, and I love this analogy, slices of Swiss cheese. Everything that you take as an action has its strengths and also has its gaps. The same with temperature checks.
And so that idea, I think kind of speaks to exactly what you're talking about, where yes, and I've heard those same criticisms, we see how government officials have easy access to it, sports professionals have easy access to it, and now it clearly defines a very separate class of individuals who have access to these very rapid turnaround tests that do cost money out of pocket.
But the average person still is left wondering where to get a test. And we haven't seen them or this kind of widespread rollout at schools, for example, which is one area where there is concern that there should be. So I think right now the idea, is that it's just one tool that should be helping. Because as I've been told today, actually it's a really important point bring up right now, even if we do get a vaccine, just to set expectations, public health experts still expect us to have to wear masks and social distance even after that. So all this put together just being, yes, generally speaking, tests will be helpful.
MYLES UDLAND: Yeah, I think I've heard experts talk about the chances that COVID disappears from the population are somewhere between zero and zero. So that's probably not the future we're looking at after a vaccine, and all these things are going to be part of our life. All right, Anjalee, we will leave it there. Thanks for joining the show.
