As Covid-19 continues to tear through the nation and the world, we once again see a split-screen view: two remarkably effective vaccines, but whose rollout has been bumpy and sluggish in California and across the country. And now, we also are in a race against time, as new variants of the coronavirus are galloping across the UK and have entered the U.S. We know that the variants are more infectious, and there is a concern that some might also be partly resistant to the vaccine.
We’ll begin with a short update on UCSF’s vaccine distribution program, which has gone quite well, particularly compared with experiences elsewhere. Speakers will be Desi Kotis, PharmD, UCSF Health Chief Pharmacy Executive, and Susan Smith, MD, UCSF Health Chief Faculty Practice Officer.
We then bring back Paul Offit, MD, Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and one of the world’s leading expert on viral vaccines. We’ll talk about the roll-out so far, the threat of vaccine resistance, the variety of proposed adjustments to the vaccine distribution plan (including the recently announced plan by the Biden team to release 2nd doses), vaccine hesitancy, and more.
Finally, we’ll hear about the new viral variants, including the one that is causing a major surge in the UK, and another first reported in South Africa that has alterations that may affect the effectiveness of current vaccines. The speaker will be Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, UCSF Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Internal Medicine, and one of the world’s authorities on the diagnosis of unusual infections and the implications of mutation. The session is moderated by UCSF Department of Medicine chair Bob Wachter.

Program
Bob Wachter: Introduction
00:05:08-00:11:12 – UCSF Vaccine Distribution Update: Desi Kotis (UCSF Health Chief Pharmacy Executive; Associate Dean, School of Pharmacy) and Susan Smith (UCSF Health Chief Faculty Practice Officer)
00:11:12-00:18:59 – Q&A
00:19:04-00:52:11 – Vaccine Roll-Out: Q&A with Paul Offit (Professor of Vaccinology, University of Pennsylvania; Director of the Vaccine Education Center, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia)
00:52:14-01:14:14 – Viral Variants: Charles Chiu (Professor, UCSF Dept. of Laboratory Medicine and Dept. of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases)
01:14:14-01:20:05 – Q&A
Bob Wachter: Closing

See previous Covid-19 Medical Grand Rounds:
• December 17: Covid-19: The CDC, Vaccine Roll-Out, and Ethics and Policy Issues Surrounding Immunity Passports
   • Covid-19: The CDC, the Vaccine Roll-O...  
• December 3: Covid-19: How Should We Handle the Schools, and the Challenges of Vaccine Distribution
   • Covid-19: How Should We Handle the Sc...  
• November 19: Covid-19: Update on Vaccines and Therapeutics
   • Covid-19: Update on Vaccines and Ther...  
• November 5: A Conversation with Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Ezekiel Emanuel, and Andy Slavitt: The Implications of the Election on the Future of the Pandemic
   • A Conversation w/ Kirsten Bibbins-Dom...  
See all UCSF Covid-19 grand rounds, which have been viewed over 1.5M times, here: https://medicine.ucsf.edu/covid-19-ne...