Anthony Stephen Fauci, Vivek Hallegere Murthy, Rochelle Paula Walensky, and Jeffrey Dunston Zients

“ Two thirds of community health center patients live at or below the poverty level, and 60 percent are racial and ethnic minorities.
As we announced earlier this week, we’re expanding our community health center vaccine program so that all of the nearly 1,400 community health centers can sign up to receive and administer vaccines.
Overall, across the country, there are now more than 66,000 sites where Americans can go to get a shot. And by April 19th, we will meet the President’s goal of ensuring 90 percent of Americans have a vaccination site within five miles of where they live. ”

“ We’ve talked about it in terms of cases and hospitalizations and vaccination numbers, but I want to start today just by sharing with you a little bit more about what we’ve learned about the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For many Americans, this pandemic has not only impacted our physical health and wellbeing, but also the mental health and wellbeing of our children. This week, we learned, for example, that an estimated 40,000 children in America lost a parent to COVID-19, according to a new model from researchers. ”

“ When you look at the scope of the ability to mount a adequate immune response that could protect you, if anything, it is likely that elderly individuals, particularly if they’re frail and have underlying conditions, might not have responded as well to the vaccine — which, when someone is already elderly and may or may not have an underlying condition, that it is unfortunate but not surprising that you might have a couple of deaths within that more than 200 people who broke through. ”

“ That same survey in March, just three months later, found that 61 percent of people reported either already being vaccinated or wanting to receive a vaccine as soon as possible. This is an encouraging trend, but we still have more work to do.
Millions of people still have questions about the vaccine, and misinformation and disinformation continues to spread. That is why we are working hard to give people the facts about COVID-19 through a variety of channels, the most important of which is trusted messengers. ”

“ This week, scientists found that one in eight people with COVID-19 were diagnosed with a new psychiatric or neurological condition in the following six months, and anxiety and depression were among the most common conditions.
Millions of people are experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression right now. And research from the CDC has showed that younger adults, racial and ethnic minorities, essential workers, and unpaid adult caregivers have experienced disproportionately worse mental health outcomes during this pandemic. ”

“ First, I want to provide a brief update on our accelerating vaccination program. As of today, overall, more than 112 million Americans have received at least one dose, and more than 66 million adult Americans are now fully vaccinated. That’s more than one quarter of all adult Americans that are now fully vaccinated. That’s up from less than 1 percent when we came into office 11 weeks ago. ”

“ We’ve made extraordinary progress on the vaccine campaign. And what we’ve already accomplished gives us faith that we can accomplish the tasks ahead. It will take all of us stepping up to help the people we love to get vaccinated. ”

“ And it’s very important because we know that people above the age of 65 are at the highest risk of poor outcomes with COVID, so we absolutely want to make sure they’re vaccinated. It’s also why we’re very proud that over 75 percent of people over the age of 65 have received at least one dose of the vaccine. More than half of people over 65 have been fully vaccinated. ”

“ With this funding for testing, every state will have access to millions of dollars to set up screening programs to add an additional layer of protection for schools, teachers, and students. This funding can be used to test teachers, staff, and students with any symptoms of COVID-19, those who have may have been exposed to the virus, and to establish sustained screening programs across school systems.
We recognize that establishing a testing program is a new venture for many schools. ”

“ Yeah, Kaitlan, with the number of breakthrough cases, I think the important thing is to look at what the denominator of vaccinated people is, because it is very likely — and what we’re hearing at least indirectly, and we’ll — we’re certainly going to be confirming that — that that number of individuals who were breakthrough infections is not at all incompatible with a 90-plus percent vaccine efficacy. ”

“ The research tells us clearly that people want to hear from people they know and trust when deciding about the vaccine. For example, a survey in January showed that more than three in four adults in the United States have said they would likely turn to a doctor or nurse or other healthcare provider when deciding whether to get the vaccine. ”

“ And part of our effort to get vaccinations to the remaining group of folks over 65 involves working with community organizations that can reach people who are older. And that’s — we’re doing that on a very local basis. You know, we’re working with, you know, sports leagues; with groups like AARP — the American and American Association of Retired People; and we’re working with faith organizations — all of which can reach, you know, seniors in different ways. ”

“ Vaccinations continue to increase with the most recent seven-day average of nearly 3 million vaccinations delivered daily, up 4.5 percent from the prior seven-day period. Our vaccination efforts this week have continued to accelerate, moving us closer and closer to President Biden’s goal of 200 million vaccinations in his first 100 days. ”

“ I’m actually at The 19th, but I was hoping to learn a bit about how you all plan to reach the almost quarter of seniors who are not yet vaccinated, many of whom say — right? — that no one has talked to them about whether it’s safe; who are maybe homebound — and if there are specific local- or state-coordinated efforts in partnership with you all to make sure that people are getting the message about vaccines. ”

“ With FDA authorization, the company also expects a cadence of up to 8 million weekly doses in total across state and federal channels later in April. Importantly, Johnson & Johnson has also reiterated its commitment to provide at or near 100 million vaccine doses by the end of May.
Now, even as we accelerate our vaccination program, we are seeing areas of the country where cases are increasing. From the beginning of the administration, we’ve been closely tracking the data on the state of the disease in each state and territory. The CDC tracks data and outbreaks at the state and county level. ”

“ The one thing we do know — that Israel is a classic example — is that as you get people vaccinated, you’re going to start seeing diminution in number of cases, which will be followed by diminution in hospitalizations, which will inevitably be followed by diminution in deaths. ”

“ A platform is the type of vaccine that you use. There’s genetic immunization, such as DNA and RNA, and hence the mRNA vaccines; viral vectors, such as the adeno with J&J; recombinant protein, such as Novavax ”

“ Israel has not had the overwhelming majority of their population vaccinated yet. However, they are seeing a very, very beneficial effect, already. So whether or not they will have reached herd immunity — again, herd immunity is an elusive concept. ”

“ But once they receive the authorization, the company believes that it will be able to achieve that 8 million per week cadence.
You know, in terms of the situation in states that are experiencing increases in states — sorry, in cases — you know, this pandemic has hit every state and every county hard. Thousands of people — hundreds of thousands of people have died, and more are dying each day. ”

“ Jeff, can I ask a little bit more about the J&J situation, just for clarity? You say that if Emergent is authorized, their production will rise to up to 8 million per week by the end of the month? Is that correct? And the spike that we saw last week, I assume that was because of the authorization of the other plant.And then also, if you could give us an update on AstraZeneca. They’re working with the U.S. government to try to find new drug substance production. ”

“ And, two, help the people you care about get vaccinated as well. Ask your family and friends if they have a plan to get vaccinated. If they have questions, talk to them about the facts; encourage them to talk to their primary care provider. ”