Dr. Bob Lahita predicts coronavirus vaccine will be available in 'mid-December, before the holidays'

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Challenges of reopening colleges campuses amid COVID pandemic

West Virginia University moves undergrad classes online due to rise in coronavirus cases; reaction from Dr. Bob Lahita, professor of medicine at New York Medical College and chairman of medicine at St. Joseph's University Hospital.

A coronavirus vaccine will likely be available before the holidays arrive, New York Medical College Professor Dr. Bob Lahita told “Bill Hemmer Reports" Tuesday.

“It's going to be probably, and I'm going to bet on this, December,” he said. “Mid-December, before the holidays.”

Three coronavirus vaccine candidates are currently in the final phase of human trials in the U.S. -- one made by AstraZeneca, one made by Moderna and a third made by Pfizer-BioNTech.

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“There was word last week of an [FDA] emergency use authorization where we thought they would not abide by phase three rules, but they are going to abide by phase three rules,” Lahita told host Bill Hemmer. "So the vaccines that we get are going to be very safe.”

Meanwhile, Lahita added, every American should get a flu shot for additional protection from illness and "do it now."

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Turning to the reopening of schools with social distancing mandates in place, Lahita said such a system was “perfect” for high school, but would be less acceptable to college students who "feel invulnerable."

"To some degree, they're correct,” he added. “They're going to be infected. They're going to be sick a little bit, but they're not going to be very, very sick. And if they go home and give it to their parents, their grandparents, their brothers and sisters, that's a problem."