Media Coverage

An editorial in the Buffalo News on overcoming misinformation to raise vaccination rates in Buffalo, quoted Thomas A. Russo, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, who cautioned that the pandemic isn’t over yet, but is morphing into a less threatening form. “In Western New York and in most of the state, we’re beginning to leave the pandemic stage,” said Russo. “Now we’re entering the endemic phase: a percolating background noise of cases.”

Yahoo! News quoted John A. Sellick Jr., DO, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, in an article on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest report on breakthrough infections in the U.S. among people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.The report found 10,262 COVID-19 breakthrough infections occurred in nearly 101 million fully vaccinated people between January and April 2021.“For those of us who are of average health, are fully vaccinated and don’t have severe underlying medical problems, breakthrough infections are unlikely to be a huge problem,” says Sellick. “But highly immunosuppressed people have to be careful, just in case.”

The Buffalo News quoted Thomas A. Russo, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, in an article on the potential final stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The pandemic is not quite over yet, though we’re getting close,” said Russo. “In Western New York and in most of the state, we’re beginning to leave the pandemic stage. Now we’re entering the endemic phase: a percolating background noise of cases.”

Romper quoted Thomas A. Russo, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, in an article on how vaccinated parents can protect unvaccinated children from COVID-19. It’s more risky to take an unvaccinated child to a grocery store or restaurant after mask orders and capacity limits are rescinded, said Russo. But it’s important to note that “more risky” does not mean dangerous, he said.

Southfield Regional Academic Campus in Southfield, Mich., is coming under fire after stating that it will charge unvaccinated students to attend prom. “We’re seeing mostly carrots in terms of getting people vaccinated, but this is a bit of a stick,” says Thomas A. Russo, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases. “Whether this will encourage people to get vaccinated or avoid prom ... I'm not so sure,” he says. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order this week banning governmental entities in the state from requiring or mandating that masks be worn. “The bottom line is that this will probably result in more cases because if you can’t mandate masks, that will mean you’ll have individuals in school that are infectious and asymptomatic,” Russo says. However, he adds: “Masks will largely protect individuals that wear them,” so students and staff who plan to continue to wear face coverings should be at a lower risk of contracting the virus than those who are unmasked.

Verywell Health quoted John A. Sellick Jr., DO, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, in a report on updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance that states people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 do not need to be tested for the virus, even after known exposure. “When you have a very low presence of infection and many people are vaccinated, testing is largely unnecessary in the vaccinated population,” said Sellick. “I would not ask fully-vaccinated people to pursue testing, unless they have extenuating circumstances, like someone at home who is immunosuppressed.”

Incentives are growing to get people vaccinated. New York State announced that those who get a COVID-19 vaccine at any of the 10 New York State mass vaccination sites between May 24 and May 28 will receive a scratch-off lottery ticket for a chance to win cash prizes. The value of the lottery ticket is $20. Thomas A. Russo, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, says incentives are an effective tool to get people vaccinated. “I am a big fan of incentives. The more people we can get vaccinated the better, and I think there is a large number of people out there that for a variety of trivial reasons are yet to get vaccinated, and incentives such as this will certainly inspire them to greatness,” he says.

An article in Clinical Trials Arena has interviewed Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. The article discusses the fact that ongoing COVID-19 trials are adopting different strategies to sequence patient samples to identify the impact of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants on the efficacy of monoclonal antibody cocktails. The trial setting — treatment or prevention — is driving the sequencing strategy. While trials are collecting participant samples to ascertain the impact of emerging variants of concern, the immediate focus remains mainly on clinical outcome measures, with sequencing data expected to be available later. 

More than 900,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the past seven days. Overall, more than 17.3 million doses have been administered across the state. More than 61 percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and up have had at least one dose, and 51 percent of that same group have completed their vaccine series. Nancy H. Nielsen, MD, PhD, senior associate dean for health policy, recognizes that some people may not want to get their vaccine, but she notes that the message from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is: “If you’re vaccinated, you’re golden. If you’re not vaccinated, you’re taking a terrible chance,” she says. She notes: “Just as long as you’re immunocompetent and you’re fully vaccinated, even if a non-vaccinated person comes in without a mask, they’re the ones at risk, not you,” explains Nielsen. “Anybody who is not vaccinated, if you want to be safe, go get the vaccine. The quicker the better.”

The Buffalo News reports on the COVID-19 pandemic and various approaches to boosting U.S. vaccination rates. “Hopefully the decreased recommendation for masking will give further incentive for vaccine-hesitant individuals to vax up. That’s more of a carrot than a stick approach,” says Alan J. Lesse, MD, associate professor of medicine and senior associate dean for medical curriculum. More than half of states have dropped virus-prevention mandates. Jeffrey M. Lackner, PsyD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Behavioral Medicine, visited Nashville two weekends ago for his son’s graduation, a Tennessee city where pandemic restrictions have ended. “We went down Broadway and 20 rooftop bars were filled to the brim,” says Lackner. “No one’s wearing a mask. I felt at the end of my time there like I was being gaslighted.” Thomas A. Russo, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, says: “The unvaccinated pose a risk to themselves, other unvaccinated individuals, and to a subset of the fully vaccinated that are immunocompromised.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer need to wear face coverings indoors or practice social distancing. However, some people still cannot get vaccinated and many have chosen to forgo vaccines, so Thomas A. Russo, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, is urging them to continue wearing their face coverings for themselves and others. “In the short-term, I think some businesses will require people to wear masks,” says Russo. “But I think as cases continue to go down, they will feel increasingly comfortable and likely that mandate will be lifted.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that fully vaccinated people can forgo wearing face coverings, for the most part. “The CDC wants to send a message that if you’re fully vaccinated, you’re largely prevented from getting infected and have a reduced risk of spreading it to others,” says Thomas A. Russo, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases. “And, if you do get COVID-19, you will be asymptomatic or experience trivial disease.” He notes: “This isn’t like smallpox, where we cured that disease. Even if we do great in this country, until the world gets vaccinated, it will be imported into this country.” Ultimately, due to vaccine hesitancy and vaccine refusal, it is possible we may never reach herd immunity. “As long as there are COVID-19 cases out there, the virus is able to evolve and change,” Russo says.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surprised most people last week when the agency announced that those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 do not need to wear masks indoors or outdoors in most situations to protect against the virus. If you have children at home but you’re fully vaccinated, you should also be OK to go into a store without a mask, says Timothy F. Murphy, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and senior associate dean for clinical and translational research. “Children don't seem to acquire COVID-19 as easily and don't transmit it as easily,” he says. “When they do, the illness tends to be mild, although you don't want to expose your child to the virus.”

Plenty of people were surprised and even caught off-guard last week when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that those who are fully vaccinated no longer need to wear a face covering in most situations. Thomas A. Russo, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, says he has been "advising a lot of people" about how to handle the new guidance. “People are nervous about this — I've heard it a zillion times,” he says. “The mask has been their security blanket for 14-plus months.” The big concern, Russo says, is that “unvaccinated people won’t be wearing a mask.” He says you should be “just fine” to go out in public without a face covering if you’re fully vaccinated, as long as you're not immunocompromised. If you are, he recommends continuing to wear a face covering, just in case. He points out that if you are not vaccinated, you still should be wearing a face covering.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says fully vaccinated people can be without face coverings in most places. So what are COVID-19 facts to remember in a world with fewer masks? Airborne transmission is far more common than surface transmission, which is why cars and indoor spaces are more dangerous than breezy outdoor areas that disperse virus particles. John A. Sellick Jr., DO, professor of medicine, likes to put it this way: “Whose air are you breathing?” Also, it is clear vaccines drive down virus numbers and keep people from getting serious infections. “Imagine a dance or a concert with 100 people, and COVID-19 shows up,” says Thomas A. Russo, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases. “If only one or two people are not protected through vaccination, the virus is going to have a hard time finding those susceptible hosts.”