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

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ Overall, in the J&J vaccine, we’ve done the planning, we have the distribution channels in place, and we’re getting doses out the door as quickly as possible to get shots in arms. So we’re focused on execution, and that includes the important work of ensuring that we continue to increase overall vaccine supply, increase the number of vaccinators, and increase the number of places Americans can get vaccinated. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We do expect that they be distributed evenly for all communities to benefit.There are clinical benefits to J&J that we talked about briefly — in terms of the cold storage capacity, the single dose — that might make it very useful for healthcare providers in their toolkit, as they’re thinking about things like some pop-ups. ”

“ 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. ”