TAMPA, Fla. — On 10 Tampa Bay, we’re committed to keeping you up to date with all the latest COVID-19 news.
That’s why every week we are taking your questions to a local medical expert to talk about what’s going on. From the latest on where Tampa Bay stands with vaccines, to monitoring the COVID-19 variants, we’ll continue tracking information.
Dr. Michael Teng, Ph.D., is a virologist at USF Health.
Here are some of the questions we asked this week:
Q: Why aren’t we seeing a spike of COVID-19 cases after the Super Bowl and parade?
A: “The outside element is probably what saved us. You know when you have an indoor event in poorly ventilated places, for long periods of time and I’m thinking some of the bars don’t necessarily have great ventilation, that’s more problematic. If you have people out in the street, and moving about, it’s better than if they’re staying in a group.”
Q: What’s one of the biggest concerns with the new virus variant, for people who are back in school buildings?
A: "The new variant 'spreads a little bit better." It causes a little bit more disease regardless of your age and so even though younger children don't spread the virus in general as well, with the more transmissible variant, then you're still going to spread it. Especially in some of our older schools, the ventilation, you can't overhaul the HVAC systems that quickly, so the teachers will be in an environment that is going to have potentially more virus."
Q: Is President Joe Biden’s 100 million shots in 100 days going to be enough?
A: “It sounds catchy, 100 million doses in 100 days sounds like a thing. But if you calculate it out, it's a million doses a day which is really not sufficient because we have 300 million people in the United States. Aiming for something like 3 to 5 million doses a day would be great and we could actually get through this, this year."
You can send your questions to 727-577-8522 and we could answer them on 10 Tampa Bay Brightside.
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