Anthony Stephen Fauci, Marcella Nunez-Smith, Rochelle Paula Walensky, and Jeffrey Dunston Zients

“ We’re making remarkable progress on our vaccination efforts. We now have more than 64 million people who received at least one dose of vaccine, and we are vaccinating millions more each day. This is our path out of the pandemic. As you heard last night from the President, we are working as quickly as we can to ensure that every American has access to vaccine. ”

“ At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained. These variants are a very real threat to our people and our progress. Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know can stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, not when we are so close. ”

“ So we will continue to prioritize getting all Americans vaccinated as quickly as possible while at the same time understanding this is a global pandemic and making as big a contribution as we possibly can to worldwide efforts to get everyone else vaccinated. ”

“ In contrast, the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine approach is to take a common-cold, harmless, non-replication, competent virus called Adeno26, in which the DNA of the SARS spike insert was given into the genome. That virus is then injected into an individual. The DNA then transcribes the RNA; the RNA then gives you the spike protein.
The ultimate end game is that both of the viruses — excuse me, both of the vaccines ultimately result in a spike protein in the right conformation that gives the body the opportunity to feel that this is the actual virus that it’s seeing when it’s not; it’s the protein. ”

“ As we fight against centuries of structural inequities, we must be intentional about making vaccination easy and convenient for everyone, and key to that effort is having enough vaccinators to deliver shots in arms. ”

“ As many of you remember, on the President’s first full day in office, he outlined a comprehensive strategy to beat this pandemic. We’ve spent every day since then executing against that strategy, and we are making progress.
As you can see on our weekly vaccination progress report, the current seven-day average — the dark bar on the far right — is 2.2 million shots per day. That’s a new record pace that we will continue to build on.
On Inauguration Day, only 8 percent of Americans 65 and over had gotten their first vaccination. Today, that number is nearly 65 percent. ”

“ Small gatherings in the home of people, I think you can clearly feel that the risk — the relative risk is so low that you would not have to wear a mask, that you could have a good social gathering within the home.Beyond that is going to be based on a combination of data, a combination of modeling, and a combination of good, clinical common sense. ”

“ The Janssen vaccine is a much-needed addition to our toolbox and increases the number of vaccine doses available, and makes it possible for people to get — for more people to get vaccinated and protected from COVID-19.
It also offers several unique benefits. It’s a single-dose vaccine that provides COVID-19 protection with just one shot. That can help fully vaccinate people who may have difficulty, or who are not interested, in returning for a second dose. For those administering the vaccine, this vaccine is also easier to store and transport since it does not need to be kept in a freezer. ”

“ Since so many Americans use their state and local websites to schedule vaccine appointments, the administration will also deploy technology teams to help to improve these systems.
Reopening schools safely is critical to getting closer to normal. Last night, President Biden discussed additional steps in our efforts to reopen schools. Now that the American Rescue Plan is law, $130 billion will help schools pay for critical supplies to implement CDC’s mitigation strategies, hire more staff, and support children’s academic, social, and emotional needs. And we’re getting educators vaccinated. ”

“ Fauci has said — at the same time, I want to really keep our eye on the fact that we are — our cases are increasing right now, slightly, and — but they are. And so, you know, the goal is not to sort of open up travel, open up all of, you know, things because people — you know, we’re scaling up vaccination. The goal in those first 100 days has always been to sort of make sure that we are in a place to be out of this pandemic. At 70,000 cases per day, we’re not in that place right now. ”

“ That’s earlier than expected and reflects our success working with vaccine manufacturers to increase supply and secure doses for all adult Americans, and also our progress in increasing both the number of vaccinators and the number of places that people can get vaccinated.
Now, that does not mean that everyone will get a shot immediately, but May 1st is the date every adult will be eligible to sign up to get the shot. And by the end of May, we expect to have enough vaccine supply available for all adults in this country. ”

“ Ultimately, vaccination is what will bring us out of this pandemic. To get there, we need to vaccinate many more people. Yesterday, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, endorsed the safety and efficacy of Janssen’s COVID-19 vaccine. After the ACIP met, I was heartened to sign their recommendations for use of this vaccine in people 18 or older. ”

“ We know that childcare programs and early childhood education are essential to healthy childhood development. The services these programs offer are important for working parents and provide a safe, stable, and nurturing environment for kids to get them ready for school and develop critical social and emotional skills.
Like other businesses and community services, many childcare programs have been challenged in their response to the pandemic. Early last year, CDC released initial guidance for childcare programs during COVID-19. ”

“ Equally importantly, as of today, nearly 50 million people in the United States have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. We have put in place the most intensive vaccine safety monitoring systems in U.S. history, and we are actively monitoring for any new safety signals.
CDC’s new V-safe smartphone-based health checker has now enrolled approximately 4.5 million people to capture patient-reported side effects in real time. These results are all reassuring. Some people have no side effects after vaccination. ”

“ We’re absolutely 100 percent committed to equitable vaccine access. And, you know, the statistics that you share are very concerning to us. We know that we still have a challenge in term of — in terms of data. The data quality are not exactly where we’d like them to be as far as race, ethnicity. But even the data that we have do suggest this pattern.You know, we are already, in the federal programs, prioritizing equity. ”

“ During the pandemic, we have seen substantial declines in pediatrician visits. And because of this, CDC orders for childhood vaccinations dropped by about 11 million doses — a substantial and historic decline.
As we work to get our children back to school, we certainly do not want to encounter other preventable infectious outbreaks such as measles and mumps. When planning for your child’s safe return to childcare programs or to school, please check with your child’s doctor to make sure that they are up to date on their vaccines. ”

“ Having multiple types of vaccine available, especially ones with different dosing regimens and different storing and handling, offers more flexibility. For example, clinics and mass vaccination sites that do not have freezer capacity may be able to use the Janssen vaccine, increasing access to more communities.
I know that many Americans look forward to rolling up their sleeves with confidence as soon as a COVID-19 vaccine is available to them. We are working hard to get and distribute these vaccines to your communities. ”

“ Today, CDC is again releasing updated guidance based on the most recent science. That science includes additional evidence showing that, when used consistently and correctly, prevention strategies such as mask wearing, staying home when sick, and good hand hygiene can allow childcare programs to operate safely and reduce the spread of COVID-19. ”

“ Because that’s not only important for them for their own health, but that could be the breeding ground of the emergence of variants for the simple reason that, if you don’t clear the virus rapidly, you’re going to have immunological selection within a given individual. ”

“ Very quickly now, looking at monoclonal antibodies for COVID-19 prevention, as opposed to treatment: In this study reported a couple of days ago, bamlanivimab prevented COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in the nursing home setting. What does that mean? It meant that in an individual where you have infection in a nursing home, and you looked at the groups — be they staff or residents — who were randomized to placebo versus bamlanivimab, there was an 80 percent reduction in the incidence of moderate or worse COVID-19 at eight weeks. ”

“ We know a person’s zip code is a stronger driver of health than their genetic code, so we will continue to prioritize getting the necessary resources to those areas and communities that have been hardest hit and are at highest risk. ”

“ We have conducted the largest-scale clinical trials of any vaccine, and what made that possible so quickly was the high amount of disease in the community and the fact that so many people were interested in participating. All of the available data show that these vaccines are safe and are highly effective. ”

“ The guidance includes strategies that childcare programs can use to maintain healthy environments and operations, to lower the risk of COVID-19 clusters in their programs, to prepare for when someone is sick with COVID-19, and to support coping and resilience for their staff and children and parents they serve. ”

“ I will add that the President has been crystal clear that, as important as speed and efficiency in vaccinations, equity and fairness are as important, and we need to make sure that we execute on a strategy that ensures equity and fairness. ”

“ Our role is to help ensure that any solutions in this area should be simple, free, open source, accessible to people both digitally and on paper, and designed from the start to protect people’s privacy. ”

“ You know, ultimately, we do believe that people should be vaccinated at the rates — and different groups should be vaccinated at the rates in their population. And that’s — that’s our target and our goal. ”

“ The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for a third safe and effective vaccine, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which will help us defeat the pandemic.
While we have much work ahead of us on so many fronts, this is certainly a very encouraging development.
Today, we’ll get a state-of-the-pandemic update from Dr. Walensky. Dr. Fauci and Dr. Nunez-Smith will discuss the recently authorized J&J vaccine. And I’ll close with an update on our planning, logistics, and distribution of the J&J vaccine. And then we’ll open it up to questions. ”

“ What happens if you get doubly vaccinated people with the Pfizer and Moderna, for example — members of family, people coming in — like, I use the example of a daughter coming in from out of town who is doubly vaccinated, and a husband and wife doubly vaccinated, and maybe a next-door neighbor who you know are doubly vaccinated. ”

“ This funding can be used to pay for rent, utilities, and staff, but also to help childcare providers implement COVID-19 prevention strategies.
I also want to stress that our childcare guidance emphasizes the importance of COVID-19 vaccination as an additional layer of prevention for childcare workers. I strongly encourage America’s childcare workers to get vaccinated. ”

“ And is it possible that vaccinated and COVID-surviving individuals who have neutralizing antibodies in their blood systems could still harbor and colonize and transmit from their noses to other individuals? ”

“ The most recent seven-day average of hospital admissions continues to decline, down from the previous seven-day period to about 4,900 admissions per day. We also continue to see around 1,500 to 1,800 deaths per day, with the latest seven-day average being just over 1,500 deaths per day. ”

“ So allocation will be based on performance, and we believe that community health centers are particularly important in order to reach hard-to-reach communities and to ensure fairness and equity. The pharmacy program is also structured around fairness and equity. ”

“ You must recall that this vaccine trial was done on three continents — the United States, South America, and South Africa — with varying degrees of infection dynamics, as well as varying strains, variants, or lineages. That is the 66 percent. The 72 percent is the vaccine efficacy against moderate to severe critical infection in the United States.
I want to point out again a question we often get asked. In order to try — we always say: What vaccine is better than the other vaccine? ”

“ Many people have reported mild side effects like pain, swelling at the injection site, and headache and chills or fever. These are common with all vaccines and should go away after a day or so. Serious, generally reversible reactions remain exceptionally rare. ”

“ So the number of doses is 3.9 million. So that was the entire J&J inventory, and all of those doses are being shipped this week.You know, I think scheduling an appointment is too difficult and remains too difficult in too many places. You know, in some states or in some locales, things have gotten better. The pharmacy systems are often better at scheduling appointments. But overall, too many Americans are suffering frustration, taking up way too much time to schedule an appointment. ”