Coronavirus showing little sign of slowing down in Wisconsin. Another weekend of record cases in the state.
“The numbers frankly are not encouraging,” Wisconsin’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ryan Westergaard tells WTMJ. “We’ve had records day-after-day for the past week. And unless we do things differently, it’s likely to continue.”
On Monday, Moderna said its vaccine appears to be 94.5% effective, according to preliminary data from the company’s still ongoing study.
“It’s very encouraging,” adds Westergaard. “Both of the leading two candidates now have some promising data. I think that’s great for people to celebrate, feel good about in terms as light at the end of the tunnel.”
“It doesn’t provide a short-term solution unfortunately. So I think we really need to focus on how we reduce transmission in communities now. I think next spring and summer if we can scale-up effective and safe vaccines, that will be able to bend the curve, Right now, because we are still several months away from having large-scale access to these vaccines, we really need to use the community-level preventions: limiting interactions and wearing masks. So yes its great news, but it doesn’t help us get out of this current pinch we are in.”