Vaccine hesitancy

“ In light of new variants circulating and the need to vaccinate as many people as possible, what is the plan to combat growing vaccine hesitancy on the ground in the wake of the J&J pause? Does the CDC have plans to work with, say, community health centers and local governments and help them with this? MR. ZIENTS: Why don’t — why don’t I go first there, and then, Drs. Fauci and Walensky, if you want to add anything. I think you’re — you’re absolutely correct that building vaccine confidence is critical to making sure Americans get vaccinated when it’s their turn. ”

“ Communicating about the safety, efficacy, and importance of vaccination and the rationale for prioritizing these populations is a new, complex challenge for public health authorities.66, 67 The long history of racist and unethical practice by government authorities and medical institutions in these communities has led to high levels of vaccine hesitancy. As we begin the largest vaccination campaign to date in the United States, leaders can and must show respect by recognizing the validity of vaccine hesitancy in these situations and being responsive to community concerns. ”

“ DR. FAUCI: Yeah, Jeff, thank you for that question. We are always concerned when there is an apparent miscommunication — if you want to use that word — that that would add to an already-existing level of vaccine hesitancy. And that’s the reason why, as Andy said, we want to make sure we’re always completely transparent in everything that goes on with regard to our messaging in vaccine.At the end of the day, you know, when you look at the data, this is going to be — turn out to be a good vaccine. ”

“ We’re doing vaccine confidence consult: if people have challenges, in terms of vaccine hesitancy, how can we address those challenges.There’s a lot of work going on so that we can actually delay the period of time where people don’t want the — you know, where we have that inflection point. We want to have a lot of vaccine out there and we want to have a lot of people who want it. ”

“ Are you worried that the vaccine hesitancy from these Republicans — they’re white Republicans — will make it harder for President Biden’s goal to vaccinate all adults by summer?And what is your guys’ thought — or what is the administration doing to persuade Republicans, in particular, to get vaccinated? ”

“ It is — we are not in a place where we can predict exactly when everybody will feel normal again. And it has — there are a number of reasons. One is, even though we will have enough doses for every person in this country, as you all know because we’ve talked about it in here, vaccine hesitancy remains a challenge. We need to ensure that everybody who can get a dose is getting a dose. ”

“ That’s why Vice President Harris also received her shot publicly.
We all know there is some history — there’s some hesitancy about taking this vaccine. We all know there’s a history in this country of having subjected certain communities to terrible medical abuses in the past. But if there’s one message to cut through to everyone in this country, it’s this: The vaccines are safe. Please, for yourself, your family, your community, this country, take the vaccine when it’s your turn and available. That’s how to beat this pandemic. ”

“ Will there be any federal assistance to support states in reaching out to seniors who may not have access to, you know, Internet or even phone to schedule these appointments? That’s been a complaint that’s emerged a lot. MS. PSAKI: Yeah, it’s a really important question because what we’ve discovered and what our team has discovered is that the farther you get into vaccinating Americans, the harder it becomes. There — for a couple of reasons. One is vaccine hesitancy, which Dr. ”

“ Q And just one on the J&J vaccine. MS. PSAKI: Yeah. Q The White House — some White House officials were touting polling data that came out yesterday that showed the pause in the J- — in the distribution of the J&J vaccine instilled confidence in Americans. MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm. Q New polling has come up today that — that shows that to be the opposite. Actually, there’s some decline in confidence around the J&J vaccine. How do you reconcile those two, and what is the White House doing proactively to try to deal with issues of vaccine hesitancy? ”

“ We’re not perfect — Q So I would say, as law- — leaders say that black — black people’s hesitancy to the vaccine might be used as an excuse for low vaccination rates, as well as access to the vaccine. ”

“ But the guidelines from our health experts, which is what we rely on, is that anyone — that every American should take whatever vaccine they have access to in their pharmacy, at their health provider, at their community center, at the mass vaccination site, whatever it may be. ”

“ Going back to the issue of vaccines, when is this administration expecting herd immunity? And I ask that because there are still populations in this nation that are not running to this vaccine, even though you’re — or these vaccines, even though you’re flooding the zone. Is there a concern that herd immunity will not be reached at the time that you are hoping for because of this mindset in certain communities? ”

“ And the question is — we do know now that we have a 94 to 95 percent efficacy in preventing clinically recognizable disease, but the looming question is: If a person gets infected, despite the fact that they’ve been vaccinated — we refer to that as a “breakthrough infection” — does that person have the capability of transmitting the infection to another person? Namely, does vaccine prevent transmission? ”

“ I understand that people may find it confusing that the vaccination program is saving tens of thousands of lives but the pandemic remains dangerous. Let me explain it in a single word: Time. Time. Even moving at the record speed we’re moving at, we’re not even halfway through vaccinating over 300 million Americans. This is going to take time. Remember: For a two-dose vaccine, it takes weeks from the time you get your first one until you are able to get your second shot, which makes you fully protected. ”

“ But what the clear advice from our health and medical team is — and they’ve looked closely at all of the questions you’ve raised, all important ones — is that if you have access — for the American people: If you have — whatever vaccine you have access to, you should take that vaccine. ”

“ As all adults now become eligible to be get — to get vaccinated, I want to again point out two really encouraging pieces of data. First, we recently released a study on how vaccines are working in the real world. Among nearly 4,000 healthcare personnel, first responders, and essential workers who received the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the risk of any infection, asymptomatic and symptomatic, was reduced by 90 percent after receiving the two recommended doses of the vaccine. ”

“ Next slide.
And so, how do you address these threat — which we clearly are facing — of a number of viral variants? On the one hand, vaccination: Maximize the immune response against the wild-type virus. You can do that by the proper adherence to the regimens shown on the clinical trial, or even plan — as some companies are doing — of, in the distance, giving a booster to the wild type.
Also, as I mentioned in a prior conference, perhaps plan, as we are doing with Moderna, to boost with a very variant-specific vaccine. ”

“ The fact is that the French, who saw this great danger, also saw the necessity of such large-scale vaccines, and they had also had a few fatalities. As I said, we had to use a virus strain for these vaccinations which, it is true, was alive and still pathogenic to animals. In other words, a virulent virus, the pathogenic effect of which on human beings was suppressed to a large extent; and that is the essence of all live vaccine manufacture, and it must occupy the central position in our considerations here. You bring about such mutation only by passing the virus through animals. ”

“ Now, this seems to be very similar to the doctrine of the coercive vaccinators of to-day, which appears to be simply and literally this: “The more disease we inflict, the more health we create,” or “Let us inflict and spread disease widely upon the people so that health may correspondingly abound.”
A striking example of the evil effects of this dangerous vaccine doctrine in recent times is found in the case of Japan, whose awful record in vaccination and smallpox and in epidemic disease transmitted by vaccine virus is exposed in the next paragraphs. ”

“ So you might know that there have been now 120 million people that have received at least one dose of a vaccine. Most of that — subtract the 6.85 million — is in the messenger RNA from Pfizer and from Moderna. There have been no red-flag signals from those. So you’re talking about tens and tens and tens of millions of people who’ve received vaccine with no adverse effect. ”

“ There was no mention of concentration camps then but of student companies. I had considerable misgivings about such experimental vaccination and expressed them. I said that I considered the experimental basis inadequate for these vaccines to be used on human beings. I was not convinced that the virus had been sufficiently attenuated. There was a danger that the vaccine would lead to infection, and one could not take that responsibility on one’s self. ”

“ Now while such wholesale and repeated or redoubled or saturated vaccinations for every person, every year, would undoubtedly be a most profitable thing for vaccinating doctors and vaccine makers and would extend the use of vaccine virus ten to one hundred fold, yet it is very doubtful whether this would be any benefit to public health. ”

“ 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 antagonism of vaccination to the so-called designs of Providence was loudly asserted. One Dr. Squirrel on this head maintained that “Providence never intended that the vaccine disease should affect the human race, else why had it not, before this time, visited the inhabitants of the globe? Notwithstanding this, the vaccine virus has been forced into the blood by the manufacturing hand of man, and supported not by science or reason, but by conjecture and folly only, with a pretence of its exterminating the smallpox from the face of the earth.” ”

“ A “breakthrough infection,” or a vaccine failure, is when a person contracts an infection despite being vaccinated against it. We see this with all vaccines in clinical trials. And in the real world, no vaccine is 100 percent efficacious or effective, which means that you will always see breakthrough infections regardless of the efficacy of your vaccine.
There’s “primary vaccine failure,” when the body actually doesn’t amount an adequate immune response for a number of reasons. ”

“ One of the things that you and Melanie know is that we had to get vaccinators. It’s one thing to get a vaccine delivered; it’s another thing to get it out of that vial, into a needle, and into somebody’s arm. And so we worked very hard. We’ve probably gotten another — close to 4,000 people who give vaccinations, from National Guard, to the Defense Department, to others, and to — and to units within commercial operations that can have people who can do the vaccination. ”

“ And because our vaccine program is in overdrive, we’re making it easier to get a vaccination shot. Last week, I announced that by April 19th of this month, 90 percent of all Americans will be within five miles of a vaccination site. ”

“ And there are tens of millions of people across the country in each and every state and county who have not yet been vaccinated. And the fair and equitable way to distribute the vaccine is based on the adult population by state, Tribe, and territory. That’s how it’s been done, and we will continue to do so.
The virus is unpredictable. We don’t know where the next increase in cases could occur. And you know that we push out all vaccine as soon as it’s available. And we’re not even halfway through our vaccination program, so now is not the time to change course on vaccine allocation. ”

“ Look, we’ve been laser-focused on the greatest operational challenge this country has ever undertaken: administering shots in the arms of hundreds of millions of Americans. We’re increasing the number of vaccinators. What we found was, you may have the vaccine but not enough people put the vaccinate — vaccine in someone’s arm, like you just saw. ”

“ And just about 20 minutes ago, a new Monmouth poll shows about 50 percent of Americans plan to get the vaccine when they can, but 24 percent say it is likely they will never get it if they can avoid it. So, my question is: Are there any conditions under which you would recommend requiring a vaccine to access certain places like federal properties, schools, or to travel, like if we fail to reach herd immunity after a certain point, or if more variants continue to spread? ”

“ If you look at the prevention of hospitalization and death among the five vaccines on the left-hand part of the slide, with one exception of a hospitalized patient in the vaccine arm of the Moderna study, virtually 100 percent protection against hospitalizations and death. ”

“ In considering the subject the Council has borne in mind the fact that in many institutions in which cases are studied and the results of therapeutic measures carefully observed and controlled, vaccines of any sort are practically never used—certainly here the stock mixed vaccine has no recognition. ”