Anthony Stephen Fauci and Jennifer Rene Psaki

“ Well, I wouldn’t — I wouldn’t read into that, other than immigration we consider as part of “racial equity” and part of — which is a broad issue, but that’s how the President has spoken about that crisis over the past several months. And clearly it is an enormous priority to him because he — we moved forward in announcing the specifics of an immigration bill — an immigration package he is eager to move forward on with Congress on his first day in office.But, as you know, there has been a lot of history on efforts to do comprehensive immigration reform — to do any form of immigration reform. ”

“ We’re following very carefully the one in South Africa, which is a little bit more concerning, but nonetheless, not something that we don’t think that we can handle.
What is the message? Because someone can say, “Now, wait a minute — if you have the possibility that the vaccines are diminishing in their impact, why are we vaccinating people?” No. It is all the more reason why we should be vaccinating as many people as you possibly can. Because as long as the virus is out there replicating — viruses don’t mutate unless they replicate. ”

“ DR. FAUCI: Well, I can tell you my impression of what’s going on right now — the team. I’m — I don’t know if I can extrapolate other things.But one of the things that was very clear as recently as about 15 minutes ago, when I was with the President, is that one of the things that we’re going to do is to be completely transparent, open, and honest. If things go wrong, not point fingers, but to correct them. And to make everything we do be based on science and evidence. ”

“ There are a number of steps that will help expedite, at some point in time. But, right now, our focus is on what many health and medical experts have consistently called a “bold” goal.I will note also that some of the reporting this morning, which Kristen asked about earlier, was that the Trump administration left us with no plan. It’s hard for them to both be exactly true at the same time. And our team has been putting together a plan — our own plan, as Dr Fauci talked about — for some time, to achieve this goal. ”

“ Well, I guess what I would send back to you — there’s a lot in there, so let me do my best here.But, Mike, is unemployment insurance only an issue that Democrats in the country want? Do only Democrats want their kids to go back to schools? Do only Democrats want vaccines to be distributed across the country? That’s — we feel that that package — he feels that package is designed for bipartisan support.
I will also say that we have also had some positive developments on our confirmations and our nominees. ”

“ Underpinning everything the President signed today and everything we do every day will be equity. Some highlights of those actions include an executive order to fill supply shortfalls for vaccinations, testing, and PPE. The President directed agencies to exercise all appropriate authorities, including the Defense Production Act; to accelerate manufacturing and delivering of supplies, such as N95 masks, gowns, gloves, PCR swabs, test reagents, and necessary equipment and material for the vaccine. ”

“ You will also see policy leaders, like Brian Deese and others in the administration, quite involved in having conversations with both Democrats and Republicans.
Q But no plans right now to sit down with them? MS. PSAKI: Well, I think we will have more to share with you soon in terms of engagement of many of our senior officials with members of both parties. Q And on the Defense Production Act, just to be clear, has the administration actually invoked the Defense Production Act? And, if so, can you spell out what changes we may see because of this? Which companies are being asked to make what? ”

“ Is the Biden administration starting from scratch with the vaccine distribution effort, or are you picking up where the Trump administration left off? DR. FAUCI: No, I mean, we certainly are not starting from scratch because there is activity going on in the distribution.But if you look at the plan that the President has put forth about the things that he’s going to do — namely, get community vaccine centers up, get pharmacies more involved ”

“ And what that does is, these specialized syringes allow pharmacists and vaccinators to extract an extra dose of the Pfizer vial — so making more doses available, of course.It also prioritizes the Defense Production Act raw materials that are used to produce the vaccine, so reducing bottlenecks. And it enables manufacturers — us to empower and invoke, I guess, an action for manufacturers to make sure we have the materials we need to get the vaccines out the door and in the arms of Americans. ”

“ When will most Americans be able to get a vaccination in their neighborhood pharmacy? DR. FAUCI: Well, I’m — I didn’t hear that comment. Are you talking about Dr. Welensky’s comment? I didn’t hear that comment, so I don’t really want to comment on the comment. But what she may be saying is that for many people in this country who don’t have access to a pharmacy, they may not be able to utilize getting things in the pharmacy.I — I’m not sure ”

“ He wants to work with Democrats and Republicans to address the crises that the American people are facing, whether they live in red states or blue states or Democratic — Democrats or Republicans.The package was designed based on recommendations from health experts, from economists. It’s been applauded by everyone from Senator Bernie Sanders to the Chamber of Commerce. And there are specific pieces in there that are meant to serve as a bridge for the American people, including a large percentage of it that’s for unemployment insurance ”

“ DR. FAUCI: No, it makes it the reason why you absolutely should be wearing a mask. It doesn’t necessarily make it less effective. If you properly wear a mask, then you’ll be okay. Q And then, on the UK strain, do you have any data on how widespread that strain is in the United States? DR. FAUCI: Well, I think it’s in at least 20 states that people have mentioned. Exactly — the real question that’s going to be asked: Is it going to become the dominant strain, or will the strains we already have prevented from flourishing and being the more dominant strain? ”

“ And when you get more hospitalizations, you’re ultimately going to get more deaths. So even though the virus, on a one-to-one basis, isn’t more serious, the phenomenon of a more transmissible virus is something that you take seriously. ”

“ His record will show — shows the American people that he’s committed to clean-energy jobs — to jobs that are not only good, high-paying jobs, union jobs, but ones that are also good for our environment. ”

“ It’s not just about lining people up — as you all know, but for people watching — in a football stadium, and giving them shots. We have to overcome vaccine hesitancy. We have to get to health communities where there aren’t — they don’t have access to health centers. That was outlined. A number of steps to address that were outlined in the President’s plan today. ”

“ I mean, I don’t know what the best case — the best case scenario, if it were for me, is that we’d get 85 percent of the people vaccinated by the end of the summer. If we do, then by the time we get to the fall, I think we can approach a degree of normality.
Q Dr Fauci, on the mutations that you were talking about, a question about how exactly they increase transmissibility. Does it take less exposure time to get it? Or does it — DR. FAUCI: No, no. ”

“ I mean, there are Republicans grumbling today that there’s not more in that bill that they want to see. So is that bill — what do you think the prospect of that bill getting through is? MS. PSAKI: Well, I don’t know that I can predict that the first day. I mean, it’s only been out for 24 hours. But what was important to the President in the outline of this bill is that it is addressing a couple of areas that he doesn’t feel have been effectively done in the past. The last four years, the immigration policy has been based around funding for a wall ”

“ Well, we have a — an entire COVID team, as you know, who are now — most of them are official. And part of their role will be engaging with governors — Democrats and Republicans — mayors, local elected officials to gain a better understanding of what’s happening on the ground. ”

“ Q So, because there are some Trump officials saying they were never offered help from Amazon, and so they’re essentially saying they think this was a political call for Amazon to wait while lives were hanging in the balance. ”