Internal-Medicine Physician at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Tulsa Dr. Jabraan Pasha joins Yahoo Finance’s Zack Guzman to discuss the coronavirus outlook for the Midwest as cases surpass 4.7 million nationwide.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: It's, of course, the pandemic that continues to trickle through here in the US. Just looking at the latest headlines on that front, we've got some interesting updates. More states reversing the course of these openings. You can look at New York and New Jersey as the leaders here, in terms of handling it well so far, in terms of case counts coming down.

But New Jersey announcing a cut to indoor gathering and the limits there the governor has imposed, cutting that by 75% yesterday to 25 people after a spate of house parties there led to some worrying superspreader events. You can call 'em superspreaders. They're superspreaders in my mind, when you get these cases. It was about 100 cases that came from those. New York also issuing violations to restaurants and bars for not following their own orders in social distancing as well as serving diners outside.

We got the uptick in Florida. Cases rising up 1.1% percent from a day earlier. That was compared to the average we've seen over the last week of 1.8%, so optimism there. And the overall nation's case count has continued to fall. Yesterday brought in the fewest number of new cases that we've seen since June 29, so maybe reasons for optimism there.

For more on the current health pandemic we're seeing play out, I want to bring on our next guest, Dr. Jabraan Pasha, internal medicine physician at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Tulsa.

Dr. Pasha, good to see you again. And we're talking about this. We're just chatting there about things moving in the wrong direction in some states. The overall numbers may be pointing to improvement. What's your take on where we're at as we get ready for, in a lot of places, if not all of them, the return for schools in the fall?

JABRAAN PASHA: Yeah, I think that what we're seeing is different regions and different states, even, at different stages of the pandemic. And I think the hope is that states can look to other states to get an expectation of what's lying ahead. And if we can take what's going on in some of the states that are being hit hardest right now, it may be some leverage for officials to really take precautions.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, and when we think about that, we hope that that's the case. We'll see it play out. There are still some states out there-- governors resisting wearing of masks.

And an interesting new case here to point to, specifically on the front of worries of school resuming here. A case came from Georgia here. A summer camp there, in Georgia, stopping short of requiring staff and kids there to wear masks, but the virus whipped through that camp, infecting-- I guess the numbers we have were those being tested-- 600 campers and counselors. The CDC said on Friday 3/4 of camp kids there and staff tested positive for COVID-19.

So what does that say about what might happen when schools reopen? Is it that we're destined to see things like this play out, or does it speak more to why masks will be required if schools do reopen?

JABRAAN PASHA: A couple of things were startling with that case. One was just the sheer number. 260 campers and camp staff tested positive. What was also startling was the fact that the age group between 6 and 10 was the group hit hardest, with 50% of the kids between ages 6 and 10 testing positive for the virus. And so as we look towards going back to school, I think we have the potential for superspreader events all over the country.

I think one thing that can be taken from that is that that camp did not mandate the students, that kids wear masks. So if there's some way to get 6- through 10-year-olds and older to actually comply and wear masks, I think there can be some hope that we won't see those types of numbers. But we know that it's hard enough for adults to wear a mask, so you can imagine how hard it would be for six-year-olds to wear their masks.

ZACK GUZMAN: It might be. I don't know. It might be easier, based on what we're seeing, in terms of the squabbles amongst adults here. When we think about that, that's very much front and center, playing out at the highest levels of government right now.

I just want to highlight what we've seen, in terms of Dr. Fauci coming out in defense of his fellow coronavirus task force chief here, Dr. Deborah Birx. We saw President Trump tweet about this yesterday, talking about how, potentially, Dr. Birx may have been caving to the pressure coming from Nancy Pelosi there, in terms of saying that more might need to be done. We're entering a new phase here.

He tweeted about that. Dr. Fauci came back saying that no, she's right. We are seeing what you're speaking to. Different states come along here in different battles of their own. What's your take on how that might undermine the medical advice here, 'cause we always worry about politics seeping into, maybe I don't know-- listening to whether or not you should be taking a drug over some other treatment, or all of that, or masks, even.

What does it say about undermining the science here that should be guiding policy, moving forward?

JABRAAN PASHA: Sure, and I can speak specifically from a physician's point of view. We all take an oath, and our obligation is to the public, and our major concern is the health of the public. And I understand the political pressures on both sides, but the science is the science, and these are individuals who are very, very highly respected in their field, and so my plea is for the general public to heed the warnings that come from these health officials.

ZACK GUZMAN: I would be remiss, too, if I didn't highlight-- obviously, you're in Oklahoma. We talked to you before the Tulsa rally that President Trump had scheduled there about what issues could come from that. We talked about hospitalizations and how stretched some of these healthcare workers are out there. In terms of Oklahoma, we've been watching the case count rise there as well, so what are you seeing?

Because all this-- you can look at a national number, and that might seem fine if we see them falling, but if one small locality there sees cases start to spiral out of control, it does impact that healthcare system quite supremely. So when we think about what you're seeing on the ground there, how have you been able to, and how have your peers been able to handle all of the case counts rising there?

JABRAAN PASHA: Fortunately, over the last week, 10 days or so, our numbers have been relatively flat, and even, with the last few days, seen a little bit of a decline. But if you look at the general trend over the last several weeks, we're still trending up, and so our seven-day moving average line is still heading in the wrong direction.

As you mentioned, we're just a couple of days of a surge from our hospitals really starting to feel the burden. And it's not necessarily the space issue. It's the staffing. And as our physicians and our nurses go out sick, our staffing is challenged. And so we are doing OK right now, but that can change really quickly.

ZACK GUZMAN: And I guess the other question there, too-- we've heard issues with PPE, all kinds of issues around this pandemic. You can streamline it a little bit more. You think of moving upstream and what you could do to change all this. Testing has been one of those major issues as well, where we're still gonna be monitoring what could come out of these discussions between Republicans and Democrats.

The Democrats, with the Heroes Act, pushing for about $75 billion additional spending to support testing. Republicans looking like they would allocate less than a third of that towards testing. So when we think about that, and really making sure that Americans can get their test results back and change their behavior if they know they have coronavirus, you think about how many cases might be reduced, in terms of transmission here. How important does that become, as a physician, in trying to minimize the fallout you'll see here in communities across the US?

JABRAAN PASHA: Yeah, I think that remains our biggest issue, is testing. And there was a period where a lot of places across the country felt pretty comfortable in their testing, but that's come and went. We're starting to see some backlogs of testing, and I've heard, as recent as today, someone having to wait 16 days for their results to come back, which goes against the point of being tested. So if you're having individuals that you just want them to wait 'til they get a negative result before they go back out into public, and they're having to wait two weeks, chances are, they may not heed that advice. And so testing is still, probably, the major issue that we're having during this pandemic.

ZACK GUZMAN: And I don't know if more money being tossed at it will help here. Just the constraints that we've seen in a lot of these labs that we've been discussing on this show-- always an issue.

But Dr. Jabraan Pasha, I appreciate you taking the time. Internal medicine physician at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Tulsa.

JABRAAN PASHA: Thank you, Zack. Thank you.