AdventHealth infection control officer: COVID-19 hospitalizations declining, vaccine possible before end of year

From AdventHealth

Dr. Vincent Hsu, an epidemiologist and AdventHealth’s infection control officer, lauded the declining hospitalization rates for COVID-19 during today’s AdventHealth Morning Briefing, and is cautiously optimistic that a vaccine may be approved before the end of the calendar year.

Dr. Vincent Hsu

“We are at war with the virus,” Hsu said. “There is a pretty good possibility we may see a vaccine approved or at least get an Emergency Use Authorization by the end of this year. Things are looking good from that standpoint. But you’ve got to get this deployed … before we’ll see herd immunity, and that’s going to take many weeks and months.”

At the peak of the pandemic, AdventHealth had more than 700 COVID-positive patients hospitalized in seven Central Florida counties. The number has declined to roughly 270.

Highlights from the briefing include:

Young people can get the COVID-19 virus: “We have seen young, healthy people put on ventilators, put on special therapies such as ECMO requiring a heart/lung bypass in order to get oxygen … I don’t know why we would want to take a risk with that. All of us need to do what we can to keep ourselves safe and avoid passing it on to others who may be susceptible.”

Get a flu vaccine now while it is readily available: “You probably need to wait 2-3 weeks between a COVID-19 vaccine and a flu vaccine or vice versa. You can’t take them together. While there isn’t a COVID vaccine yet, there is a flu vaccine. Get it now.”