Greg:
Hey, this is Greg here from Big Bay Mornings on 99.7 Now and of course that handsome face is board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Bae. Hello Dr. Bae.
Dr. Bae:
Thanks for the compliment, Greg. Happy to be here.
Greg:
You’re welcome. I’m glad that you appreciate the compliment. You could say it back if you want, but anyhow…
Dr. Bae:
Back at you back at you.
Coronavirus in our future
Greg:
Well, you’ve kind of helped this face in the past, but anyway. Dr. Bae, of course, we’re going to be talking about coronavirus for a long time. You’ve always shared the knowledge that you have with us about coronavirus and where you think things are going. Looking like in the news, they’re talking about herd immunity. Can we get there with vaccinations. Maybe not enough people in America are going to get the vaccinations and what are we going to do? How is it going to affect us? Can we still leave the house? Where is all this going? What’s the future look like?
Herd immunity
Dr. Bae:
Well, I think the good news is, this is definitely something that we’re going to be able to manage going forward. We’re not going to be stuck in the house for the rest of our lives or anything like that. The thing people do have to understand is that, one of the numbers they were throwing out with herd immunity, meaning that enough people would have it, that it would protect all of us. Either you’d get herd immunity by getting actually sick and getting antibodies to the coronavirus or getting the vaccination. They were talking about that number would be like 60, 70% of the population would have to have the vaccine or have gotten coronavirus to get heard immunity. Now that number is creeping up a little bit and they’re saying that with these variants, that maybe make things a little bit more contagious. The different variants from South Africa or Brazil, or from the UK that now maybe you have to have like 80 to 90% herd immunity, so that’s going to be kind of tough to make sure that 80 to 90% of our population.
Dr. Bae:
That’s the thing. It’s not just adults, it’s kids and things who aren’t even getting the vaccine right now, so it means the vaccine, the rate’s going to be really high to get herd immunity. Again, that doesn’t mean that we have to stay in lockdown. What it really means is that most of us will be protected and that if you do happen to get the coronavirus, but you’ve been vaccinated, then you won’t, statistically speaking, you won’t get admitted to the hospital, you won’t die from it, it’ll be more like a seasonal cold or something like that. That means that we’ll probably need to continue getting vaccines or boosters every year. If you think about it, all I’m really describing is the flu shot or the way the flu has become now. We think of the flu as something that, it’s a bummer if you get it, but you survive it typically and we still have to get flu shots every year to stay up with whatever new variants there are. That’s why we’re getting flu shots every year, because there are variants each year.
Coronavirus and the flu
Greg:
This is a new, one thing I think people have to realize again, this is a new thing. We learned a lot in the first year, they’re going to still keep learning more about coronavirus and the rollout, but they do have these vaccines now. Now they realize how to roll it out and get it out into the hands. That was a little tough at the beginning, but now it looks like it will be like the flu shot, where the vaccine is rolled out seamlessly each year.
Dr. Bae:
Correct. Exactly. You’re a 100% right. The thing people also have to keep in mind, is that just like we’ve done the flu shot each year and now that flu shot will probably include some variant of the coronavirus that happens to be the main one that year. It’s not necessarily the one that was big last year that people would get that flu shot every year with whatever flu viruses are coming or whatever coronavirus is coming, they’ll get that in the flu shot. The thing people also have to remember is that even with the flu, year after year, depending on the year, depending on what source you’re looking at, 20 to 40,000 people die from the regular old flu every year, so we’re not eliminating that. That was probably a mistake by public health officials to ever think that we were going to be able to just eliminate this thing or at least give people that hope. This is going to be just something we’re going to have to manage with each year.
Dr. Bae:
Yes, people are going to die from the coronavirus in years to come, but just like they die from the flu. Those are people who maybe have pre-existing conditions, so it’s a reason to get healthy. It’s older population, so we need to make sure they’re vaccinated each year. Again, it all comes back to managing how we deal with this going forward so that we don’t have to stay in lockdown. Maybe every 100 years there’ll be a new virus that comes out that we can’t really handle quickly and that’s when you’ll have another pandemic. Hopefully that won’t happen again in our lifetimes.
Working from home
Greg:
Well, you know what? Speaking of that, I mean, we all have to take a little bit of responsibility to getting ourselves as healthy as possible, so this is good knowledge. Also, people can get healthy by losing weight and getting into better shape and exercising. I know you can help with giving advice for that or helping with different procedures. If they want to talk to you, Dr. Bae, in more in depth, one-on-one, a consultation for something. How do they reach you?
Dr. Bae:
Well, first I want to say you heard it here first, liposuction is not the treatment to get yourself in better shape for the coronavirus. If you’re looking to get something done, no problem, I’m happy to help. You can check out our website, realdrbae R E A L D R B A E, not B A Y, realdrbae.com. and you can also follow us on Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, excuse me, @realdrbae and we can check pricing on our website and all that good stuff. If you are still working from home, moving forward your company has said, even though things are opening back up and you’re still going to work from home, this may be the best time for you to get a procedure and recover while still working from home. Pretty convenient.
Greg:
It is. All right. Well thanks again Dr. Bae.
Dr. Bae:
My pleasure, thanks for having me.
