MODERATOR: Thanks, Jeff. We have time for a few questions today, so let’s please keep the questions to one question.
Sabrina Siddiqui at The Wall Street Journal.
Q Hi, thank you as always for doing the briefing. So, given that the Omicron variant compromises the effects of a two-dose mRNA vaccine and reduces overall protection, I wanted to ask about those who are not eligible for boosters, namely adolescents aged 12 to 15 who first started getting the vaccine in May. How confident are we, since they’re not eligible for a booster, that that category of adolescents has protection against Omicron? And also, is there any cause for concern that children ages 5 to 11 who are being administered the first round of vaccines would not have sufficient protection against this new variant?
MR. ZIENTS: Dr. Fauci?
DR. FAUCI: Well, it’s very clear that when you look in general at a population level, that younger individuals have a much more robust immune response than adults, particularly among elderly. So, the comparison there is that you would expect a rather substantial power of the immune response.
Having said that, we continually look at the durability of response and the level of response in the people that have been followed in the various studies. So, this is something that we will continue to examine as to the possibility or necessity of providing boosts for that cohort of young people.
Thank you.
MR. ZIENTS: Next question.
MODERATOR: Let’s go to Katherine Eban at Vanity Fair.
Q Thank you for the briefing and thank you for taking my question. Two weeks ago, the African Union put out a statement calling on donor countries to no longer send donated COVID vaccine doses that were ad hoc, provided with little notice, and had short shelf lives. They also called on donor countries to include ancillary supplies with those donations, including specialized syringes for the Pfizer doses.
My question is: Has the White House, in light of this, reconsidered its policy of not including specialized syringes with the Pfizer donations? Or has it made any change to that policy?
Thank you.
MR. ZIENTS: Well, thanks for the questions. I want to start — for the question. And I want to start by saying that the doses that we are sending are not short-lived doses, meaning they have an extended period of shelf life. So, that might be happening with other countries’ donations, but not with the U.S. donations.
And we’ve sent 320 million doses now to 110 countries, and that’s more than every other country in the world combined. And as you know, that’s part of an overall commitment of a minimum of 1.2 billion doses donated with no strings attached. And we plan on building on that total across time.
I think, importantly, the U.S. State Department and USAID are leading the administration’s efforts to work to turn vaccines into vaccinations. And that does mean that we need to make sure that there are enough syringes and needles. And our team has been helping with the global effort to ensure that there are the syringes and needles.
The AID team and the State team are working to help train health workers to vaccinate people on the ground, run local media campaigns, and also to launch what we’ve done here: mobile vaccination clinics.
Just last week, USAID added $400 million. That brings the total of $1.7 billion for global vaccine readiness. Administrator Power made that announcement last week. And that includes, within that 400, efforts to bolster the cold chain storage in various countries, set up field hospitals, train health workers, build data systems, and support campaigns to increase vaccine confidence.
So, we’ll continue to do all we can to support getting vaccines to countries and then, importantly, as you point out, taking vaccines and make sure that they become needles in arms and actual vaccinations. And that includes efforts to support with the needles and syringes needed to do just that.
Next question, please.
MODERATOR: Let’s go to Jeremy Diamond at CNN.
Q Hey, thanks very much for doing the briefing. So, tomorrow, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is meeting to discuss the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. I’m wondering if Dr. Walensky could say why that meeting was called and whether you believe that the benefits of getting J&J no longer outweigh the risks.
And then, secondly, given the rapid spread of Omicron and the data on protection against Omicron from a booster shot versus a two-dose regimen that Dr. Fauci just presented, isn’t it time to change the definition of “fully vaccinated” to three doses? And if not, what more data are you waiting on to make that decision?
Thank you.
MR. ZIENTS: So, Dr. Walensky, on the ACIP and then on the definition of “fully vaccinated.”
DR. WALENSKY: Yeah, thank you for that question, Jeremy. So, the ACIP team meets intermittently to review the safety data of all of their vaccines. And I will look forward to their discussions tomorrow, to review of those data, and to any recommendations that come thereafter.
In terms of the definition of “fully vaccinated,” as you know, the definition right now is two doses of an mRNA vaccine or a single dose of the J&J vaccine.
Certainly, as Dr. Fauci has demonstrated and even our CDC data have also demonstrated, we are continuing to follow that science and it is literally evolving daily. And as that science evolves, we will continue to review the data and update our recommendations as necessary.
MR. ZIENTS: Next question.
MODERATOR: All right. We’ll go through a few more. Josh Wingrove at Bloomberg.
Q Hi, there. Thank you so much. Can you give us a sense of what employers and schools should be doing right now? We’re seeing a lot of employers put on hold their “return to office” strategies. We’re seeing schools and colleges move to virtual or warn about the need to move to virtual. We’re seeing widespread outbreaks in major league sports leagues, for instance.
Do we think that this is mostly the Delta surge that we’re seeing across the Midwest and Northeast? Or is this believed to be that plus Omicron?
And do you think, overall, that we need to be, in essence, locking down a little bit again? Should employers, should schools be taking the precautions that we’re seeing, or are they overreacting?
Thank you.
MR. ZIENTS: Dr. Walensky?
DR. WALENSKY: Yeah, maybe I’ll start, Josh, and just say, you know, our guidance from the CDC has actually been very clear as to what we should be doing in preventing these cases from happening.
Of course, as we’ve been saying, getting vaccinated, getting boosted, especially with emerging data that the boosts will really be helpful, both with regard to Delta, but also with regard to Omicron.
But also, our masking guidance has actually not changed in areas of substantial or high transmission. We should be having public indoor masking for everyone, vaccinated or unvaccinated; that is 90 percent of the counties right now. Adding ventilation, adding distancing and hand washing — all of those continue to hold and continue to serve us very well in preventing disease.
And we would just encourage local jurisdictions to employ the interventions that we know work.
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