Anthony Stephen Fauci, Rochelle Paula Walensky, and Jeffrey Dunston Zients

“ Now I want to switch topics to the decision we made yesterday to pause administration on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. I have always told you I’m going to tell you the truth and I’m going to lead with science. And today is, once again, one of those moments.
CDC and FDA were alerted to six cases of rare types of blood clots, called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, that occurred in combination with low levels of platelets — or a condition known as thrombocytopenia. Two individuals with these blood clots also had clots in their abdominal cavity or the veins of their gastrointestinal tract. ”

“ There’s no change. We’ve always talked about enough doses to vaccinate adult Americans by the end of May, and there’s been no change in that. What has changed, as I mentioned earlier, is that Pfizer will deliver their 200 million doses before the end of May, and Moderna stays — it remains on track.And, you know, we are on track for the various goals that we’ve set. The next goal that is in our sight is 200 million doses by the President’s 100th day, which is April 29th, and we’re on track to meet or beat that goal. ”

“ In total, more than 122 million Americans have already received at least one shot, and more than 75 million Americans are already fully vaccinated. And as you can see from our weekly progress report, our vaccination program is accelerating. Our current seven-day average is 3.3 million vaccinations per day. When I last spoke at this briefing last Friday, the seven-day average was 3 million. So, once again, strong progress.
In the very short term, we do expect some impact on daily averages as sites and appointments transition from Johnson & Johnson to Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. ”

“ You know, let me be clear that the government is not now, nor will we be supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential. There’ll be no federal vaccination database, no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.As these tools are being considered by the private and not-for-profit sectors, our interest is simple, and that’s about protecting Americans’ privacy and their rights so the systems aren’t used unfairly. ”

“ While we would typically treat blood clots with a medication called heparin, heparin and its derivatives should definitively be avoided in the treatment of these clots while an investigation of the cause is ongoing.
Second, there may be additional cases to report. We want people who have received a vaccine and their healthcare providers to be aware of these events and report them to the CDC and FDA through the VAERS system. ”

“ So we will make sure that, you know, consumers’ protections are first and foremost in the private and not-for-profit sector efforts. But there will be no government — federal government system in place. ”

“ And we have a robust campaign to increase vaccine confidence.We’ve allocated $3 billion to community-based organizations, as you point out, to increase vaccine access and confidence in hard-hit and hard-to-reach places. ”