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

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”