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

“ Importantly, FEMA has partnered with CDC to launch these and other vaccination sites that use processes and are in locations that promote equity, deploying CDC’s social vulnerability index.
Second on this point, we continue to put equity at the center of our work more broadly, guided by Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith.
Today we’re pleased to announce the members of our Health Equity Task Force. Ensuring that we reach every person in our response is something that the President and Vice President feel very strongly about. ”

“ I also want to note that Vice President Harris’s work in the Senate informed the development of the mission and work of the Health Equity Task Force. Then, Senator Harris introduced the COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparity Task Force Act to gather data about disproportionally affected communities and provide recommendations combat the racial and ethnic disparities in the COVID-19 response. Today, that vision becomes a reality as we create this task force to help lead our national response. ”

“ We will not need to do tens of thousands of people; we will need just enough measured in hundreds to thousands for safety and whether or not we induce an immune response that is equivalent to the immune response that has been proven to be protective under the trials that have now shown to be 94 to 95 percent effective.
And finally, the last issue relates to something that Dr. Walensky just said about the prevalence of the B117 or UK variant. The models tell us that this very well might become dominant in the United States by the end of March. ”

“ Importantly, as per our usual guidance, masks should be used in combination with other prevention measures to offer you and your community the most protection from COVID-19. Stay at least six feet apart from other people you don’t live with, avoid crowds and travel, and wash your hands often. ”

“ I want to set the record straight for these individuals because they are more vulnerable to the more severe effects of if they do get infected. Therefore, they are the very people who should get vaccinated. ”

“ When you think in terms of having an immunosuppressed state — for example, if you’re on glucocorticoids for rheumatoid arthritis or you’re on some of the monoclonal antibodies that block the markers of inflammation — that under those circumstances, if that’s where you are, there is not a safety issue with regard to the vaccine. ”

“ The good news that we got from other trials, particularly in South Africa, is that even though there was diminution in the effect of protection against mild to moderate disease, when you looked at serious disease, severe disease — particularly hospitalizations and deaths — there was rather substantial protection. ”

“ In the study, wearing any type of mask performs significantly better than not wearing a mask, and well-fitting masks provided the greatest performance both at blocking emitted aerosols and exposure of aerosols to the receiver. ”

“ Masks can be cumbersome. They can be inconvenient. And I also know that many of you still have questions about masks. You may be unsure if they work, what kind is best, and whether two masks are better than one. ”

“ Second, we’re mobilizing teams to get shots in arms. At the President’s direction, we’re moving quickly to get more vaccinators on the ground, including retired doctors and nurses. We’ve deployed hundreds of personnel across the federal government, from FEMA to USDA to HHS and other federal agencies, to support vaccination operations nationwide. ”

“ It is not outside of our power to do that.
For example, the vaccines that we are using clearly are effective against this. We know that from in-vitro correlate studies, as well as for vaccines that are other candidates. ”

“ Within 1C are persons 16 to 64 years of age with underlying conditions, including those that might be immunosuppressed because of certain drugs such as glucocorticoids or corticosteroids for diseases like autoinflammatory diseases or allergic diseases. ”