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

“ With this expansion and additional efforts in partnership with FEMA and states across the country, we will be able to reach the administration’s goal of making sure that 90 percent of Americans will be within five miles of a vaccination site by April 19th. And we recognize that five miles is still too far for many Americans, and that is why we are activating resources, such as mobile units and clinics, to those communities where this is the case to ensure they can get access to vaccinations. ”

“ We are facing an accelerating threat. And faced with an accelerating threat, this administration is accelerating our response even further.
The most powerful way to do this is to accelerate the pace of vaccinations. Starting on day one, we began working to accelerate and increase vaccine purchases and manufacturing to have enough vaccines to vaccinate all adults by the end of July. We then accelerated that to have enough vaccine for all adults by the end of May. The President then directed states to open up vaccinations to all adults by the beginning of May. ”

“ This represents a 16 percent increase in deaths from 2019. COVID ranked as the third leading cause of underlying death — underlying cause of death after heart disease and cancer, with approximately 378,000 COVID-19 deaths, accounting for roughly 11 percent of all deaths in the United States in 2020. COVID-19 deaths were far — were highest for older adults and males, and were higher, as we previously saw, among American Indian and Alaska Natives, Hispanics, non-Black — non-Hispanic Blacks, and non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander persons compared to non-Hispanic whites. ”

“ I’m proud the CDC stands with others leading the way to scale up our national vaccine effort as quickly as possible. As the President mentioned on Monday afternoon, we are working quickly to expand our Federal Retail Pharmacy Program from about 17,000 to 40,000 stores in communities across this nation to help everyone have ready access to vaccines. ”

“ We believe that the current mitigation strategies of masking and distancing would work just as well against the current — the wild-type strain as they do the B117 strain.
I think we’ve been pretty clear with regard to our guidance and strategies and setting specific strategies as to how people can remain safe in these settings. And we continue to articulate in these press conferences and others the importance of masking, distancing, not traveling, and decreasing crowds. ”

“ These centers provide important social and health services to community-dwelling adults aged 65 and older, as well as to adults of any age living with disability. We know these populations are at high risk for severe COVID-19 disease, and this guidance will help center administrators and staff protect themselves and adults receiving their services by promoting and engaging in preventive behaviors that reduce COVID-19 spread and help maintain healthy operations and environments of these facilities. ”

“ All of these efforts are on behalf of one thing: saving lives. We need to keep case numbers down so we can save lives and give people the chance to get vaccinated in April, May, and June so we can enter the summer on the strongest footing possible. ”

“ We’re going to go through stages, as we vaccinate higher and higher portions of populations, where it will make sense for us to continue to watch where vaccines are needed, how vaccines are distributed, the best way to reach more people. ”

“ Our school-based reopening strategy does look at community transmission and is guided based on community transmission.We have five mitigation strategies and, of course, ancillary mitigation strategies related to teacher vaccination and testing, as you note. And we’re working closely with the Department of Ed and others to input — to put forward a national testing strategy for schools. ”

“ Walensky has made the same points over and over and over again because repetition is good and it’s important. People want to know that they’re getting consistent answers. And consistently, three times a week for 10 weeks, Dr. ”