COVID Vaccine: When Will Ski Resorts Go Back To Normal?

The SnowBrains Podcast

Dr. Michael Fischman M.D. - COVID Vaccine: When Will Ski Resorts Go Back To Normal? | Brought to you by Alta Ski Area

Episode #17 of The SnowBrains Podcast

Dr. Michael Fischman M.D., M.P.H., FACOEM is an occupational & environmental medicine physician and toxicologist. He serves as a consultant in these fields to large organizations such as Intel & Pixar. Dr. Fischman is a Clinical Professor in and Assistant Chief of the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Medicine, at the University of California San Francisco. Dr. Fischman received his medical degree at the University of Michigan and his master’s degree in public health, in environmental health sciences, from the University of California, Berkeley (Go Bears!). He did his residency training in internal medicine and in occupational medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and is board-certified in both fields. Dr. Fischman is also my dad.

Dr. Fischman guides us through where we're all headed with the COVID vaccines, how the vaccines work, what we can do to protect ourselves with and without the vaccine, and when ski resorts will return to normal.

“Since the recording of this podcast on February 12, 2021, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been approved for US use, and is a single shot with 72% efficacy”

Dr. Fischman answers these critical COVID questions:

• How do the COVID-19 vaccines work?
• How many vaccines are out there? Why do they require different numbers of doses?
• How effective is the vaccine against Coronavirus after only one dose?
• What percentage of the US population needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity?
• Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines claim around 90% efficacy, do you think that is holding true in the population of people who have been vaccinated?
  
• What about the new virus variants, such as the U.K. strain? How are our current vaccines doing against those?
  
• Do you recommend a particular vaccine?
  
• When are the vaccines going to be available to everyone and what can I do now to help protect myself from getting COVID-19 until I am able to get a vaccine?
  
• If I have already had COVID-19 and recovered, do I still need to get vaccinated? Do I still need to wear a mask and socially distance?
  
• Can I get COVID-19 from the vaccine? Are there any side effects?
  
• How is it possible that the vaccines have been created so quickly? Do you think any steps were missed? My understanding is that the fastest vaccine ever created was for the mumps and it took 4-years back in the 1960s.
  
• Why are we being told to continue to wear face masks and practice social distancing onc