Anthony Stephen Fauci, Andrew M. Slavitt, and Rochelle Paula Walensky

“ CDC’s Operational Strategy specifically includes vaccination for teachers and school staff as an additional layer of protection that can be added to the five key layered mitigation strategies.
Finally, I want to emphasize that while CDC’s Operational Strategy does provide for in-person instruction during all levels of community spread, the safest and quickest way to open schools and keep them open is to have as little COVID-19 in the community as possible. Enabling schools to open and remain open is therefore a shared responsibility. ”

“ Everyone lost is someone whose life and gifts were cut short. Our hearts go out to all of those who are grieving loved ones who are so deeply missed.
For those of us in the administration, the occasion makes us more determined to turn the tide on COVID-19 so the losses can subside and the healing can begin. The President has asked us to use every possible resource to make that happen.
On Friday, I provided an overview of how the extreme weather had impacted our vaccination efforts. And today, I want to give an update on our progress to recover. ”

“ Walensky showed you, we are still at an unacceptably high baseline level with a seven-day average being quite high.
So there are things, even if you’re vaccinated, that you’re not going to be able to do in society: for example, indoor dining, theaters, places where people congregate. That’s because of the safety of society. You, yourself, what you can do when you are together with another person, we are looking at that, and we’re going to try and find out very quickly what recommendations could be made about what people can do. ”

“ So, for example, if you’ve been exposed and you’ve been fully vaccinated — two doses — there is no longer a need to quarantine after you’ve been exposed. So we are starting to emerge with some guidance in this area, and more will be forthcoming.I would echo exactly what Dr. Fauci said. We are working on rolling out a lot of vaccine to a lot of people, and yet we still have a lot of disease — 66,000 cases a day. So what we might be proposing, in terms of guidance, will really likely be at the individual level and not at the community level. ”

“ Sites around the country have a significant job ahead of them to quickly vaccinate the public. It will take some time for those sites to catch up.
We encourage vaccination sites to follow that same lead of those who are working extended hours to catch up on deliveries by scheduling more appointments to vaccinate the anxious public as quickly as possible.
There are still vaccination sites closed from today’s — from the storm’s impact. Texas’s seven-day average of administered COVID-19 doses decreased by 31 percent in the past week due to winter weather impacts. ”

“ For the 60 percent of counties that remain in the red zone — the counties with high transmission — we encourage at least the K-5 students to return to school in hybrid or reduced in-person attendance, and for middle and high school schools virtually only — unless they can strictly implement mitigation measures and have few cases. ”

“ And that is, they are guiding the medical product developers by updating their guidelines on how they address the virus variants. And the products involved that are impacted by this updated guidance are vaccines, COVID-19 tests, and therapeutics.
Why is this important? It is very clear that we are faced right now, and will be in the future, with variants that are already present, and that with all of the immunologic and other pressures that are going on and the high degree of replication throughout the world, that there will be the selecting of a variety of variants. ”

“ So beyond that, what we’re able to do as a society — the scientific team is going to continue to study based upon prevalence, based upon vaccination levels, and based upon the data, and we’ll come out with more. ”

“ However, we have found, through experience over the past many months, that when one gets advanced disease, the hyper or aberrant inflammatory or immunological response gives as much to the morbidity and mortality as the actual virus replication itself. ”

“ And finally, the same holds true for therapeutics, both drugs and biologics. The FDA will provide recommendations on the efficient approaches — how to generate data that potentially could support an EUA for monoclonal antibody products that might actually be effective against emerging variants, which obviously will be an issue because we already know particularly that the South African variant is, in fact, obviating the effect of several of the monoclonal antibodies that people have developed. ”

“ They’re meeting with their VRBPAC, and that, in the data, there may be hints about just how this would be used most appropriately and most effectively. When we find that out, then the policy of the distribution would become much more scientifically based, as Andy has said. DR. WALENSKY: And then, right on its heels will be the ACIP from the CDC to, sort of, give some guidance as to how it should be rolled out. Q Can I just follow up a bit though? Do you have any idea of how many doses there will be? The science isn’t guiding that. ”

“ Walensky — are very much working together on those sets of recommendations. And I think it is in our interest to make sure they release information based on data, not on — to your — the tenet of your question — trying to convince the public of something that isn’t necessarily based on data. I think that you will hear that consistently from this administration.I will tell you that people are interested in taking the vaccine in large numbers for the same reason people are interested in taking the vaccine for MMR and for the flu: because they want to live. ”

“ Its effect is clear but modest.
hen regard to getting early intervention, monoclonal antibodies, both from Lilly and from Regeneron, have received emergency use authorization. Here again, the earlier one uses these, the better. These are as efficient and more efficient in those individuals who don’t necessarily have a good antibody response. ”