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White House COVID Response Team Holds Briefing. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired February 08, 2021 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:00:56]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you so much for joining us this hour.

Coming up this hour and beginning any moment now, President Biden's COVID response team will be holding a briefing on the fight against the virus.

And there have been quite a few important developments over the weekend, and raising new questions about the path forward. A new study finds that cases of the U.K. variant are rapidly increasing across the United States and that significant community spread may already be happening here. And a new sign that some of the vaccines being used globally are less effective against some of the variants.

But there is good news as well. New cases continue to decline. Dropping to the lowest level in more than three months on Sunday. The number of people in hospital suffering from coronavirus is also down. And the number of vaccines administered it on the rise.

And President Biden, he weighed in on the topic of reopening schools last night.

So, new guidance on that from the CDC is expected this week.

How will they address that today in the briefing? We will see. When the briefing starts, we'll bring that you to as it gets underway.

Also happening right now, Capitol Hill is preparing for the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. A historic Senate trial not just over 24 hours away. There is still a lot that we don't know about how it is all actually going to play out, like how long it will last or if there will be witnesses. But sources are telling CNN now that the Senate leaders are close to a deal on the very least of the rules of the road, the rules of how the trial will look.

We are going -- we're also getting right now in more detailed account of the former president, President Trump's defense strategy. His legal team just filing its latest brief. The House impeachment managers are scheduled to file new briefs this hour from their perspective.

We're actually going to the White House right now with the White House coronavirus response team briefing is getting underway. (WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS BRIEFING)

ANDY SLAVITT, SENIOR ADVISER TO WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM: -- in the face of the threats we confront. We know that millions of Americans are also waiting patiently to be vaccinated. Today, I want to begin the briefing by updating on you what is happening while you're waiting.

In the weeks and even months that you are waiting, the nation's efforts are being spent -- focused on many who are most at risk of hospitalization and death from this virus: the elderly, seniors, front line health care workers and many essential workers.

According to a recent CDC report, the long-term care program has administered now over 4.8 million doses to more than 3.7 million of our most vulnerable. Those who were dying in large numbers over the last year are now on a path to protection. And in skilled nursing facilities that have had at least one vaccination clinic, an estimated median of almost 80 percent of residents have received at least one dose of vaccine.

As vaccinations at these facilities are completed, that will mean more -- many more lives saved, many more vaccines that could be moved into the inventory for the next priority groups. And in total, of the over 40 million doses that have been administered, over 17 million doses have been administered to people 65 or older.

Now, this is a great representation of the American spirit of generosity and American selflessness, because our ability to vaccinate millions of the elderly, seniors and health care workers is a testament to a society that has put our parents and grandparents, those who have served up and those continue to sacrifice for us on the front lines of the health care system first.

Now at the same time, we need to step up efforts to increase vaccinations of racial and ethnic communities that have suffered disproportionately.

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Health equity is a cornerstone of all of our work and we'll be talking more about progress there in upcoming briefings. Even with that perspective and progress, we understand that the process moves more slowly than anyone would like but each day, we are putting forth efforts to increase vaccine supply, including by use of the Defense Production Act, to create more places to get vaccinated, including new large community vaccination centers and retail pharmacies, and mobilize more vaccinators by allowing retired physicians and nurses in deploying the military.

This is a national emergency and the approach we are taking reflects this. We are putting every resource and tool that the federal government has into this battle and we're taking a whole of government, indeed a whole of country approach. As soon as Congress puts the American Rescue Plan on the president's desk, we'll be able to further increase in effort. We understand this is a long journey, but thanks to the sacrifice of

so many of you and the step by step plan we're executing for many of our most vulnerable Americans, the risk of death is being reduced and we're committed to leaving no stone unturned.

With that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Walensky for a state of the pandemic and Dr. Fauci for the latest science before we answer your questions -- Dr. Walensky.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: Thank you so much, Andy. I'm so glad to be back and joining you today.

Today, I'm going to give you a brief update on the pandemic. As I mentioned on Friday, despite trends moving in the right direction, we remain in a very serious situation. COVID-19 continues to affect too many people as we continue to mourn all of those lives that have been lost.

Cases have continued to decline over the last four weeks, an average of 119,900 new cases were reported between January 31st and February 6th. That is a drop of nearly 20 percent from the prior week, but still dramatically higher than last summer's peak. We must continue to drive these cases down.

New COVID-19 hospital admissions also continue to decline -- an average of 9,977 admissions per day were reported between January 30th and February 5th, a decline of nearly 17 percent from the week prior. This is promising but hospitalizations also remain incredibly high. Over 83,000 Americans are hospitalized right now with COVID-19, much higher than the summer and fall.

Today, we are reporting that COVID 19 deaths increased 2.4 percent to an average of 3,221 deaths per day from January 31st to February 6th. As I mentioned on Friday, sometimes delays in reporting can lead to fluctuations in the data. This is the case for the average number of deaths reported today which includes a delayed report of 1,570 confirmed deaths from one state.

These deaths were reported last week but actually had occurred over the prior several months. We may continue to see the variation of daily deaths for different reasons, including reporting delays. We are continuing to watch these data closely and although hospital admissions and cases are consistently dropping, I'm asking everyone to please keep your guard up.

The continued proliferation of variants remains of great concern and is a threat that could reverse the recent positive trends we are seeing. As of February 7th, 699 variant cases have been confirmed across 34 states. With 690 of these cases being a B117 variant, the variant first reported in the U.K.

Please continue to wear a mask and stay as six feet apart from people you don't live with, avoid travels and crowds and poorly ventilated spaces and get vaccinated when it is available to you. I recognize that the pandemic has taken an enormous toll on all of us, but if we all work together and take these prevention steps, we could finally turn the tide.

Thank you, I look forward to your questions and I will now turn things over to Dr. Fauci -- Dr. Fauci.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Thank you very much, Dr. Walensky.

I'd like to address briefly two issues that have come up for discussion over the last several days and one is the question of given the fact that there is a greater demand than there is supply, should we be putting all of our effort into getting the first dose into people with less emphasis on the second dose?

Now the reason for that I have explained in the past because the science has shown in both of the vaccines that we have currently available, the Moderna and the Pfizer, the strong data indicates that a prime boost gives them maximum response of 94 percent to 95 percent efficacy.

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But the question has arisen, why not study in detail whether or not you could get away with a single dose?

It is not an unreasonable thing to suggest a study. The only issue is that the practicality of that really makes that a situation that I don't think is able to be done for the following reason. If you look at the number of people that would be required in study to answer that question again, one versus two with the currently available vaccines, the time it took to get information on the phase three and the number of people that that study with all due respect would take several months to get a meaningful answer. At that time, the amount of vaccine that would be available would almost be making that question somewhat of a moot point.

So then let's ask ourselves the question, is what do we do know about one dose versus two-dose? And data, I think, are important to present.

We know from the original studies that following a single dose of either the Moderna or the Pfizer, you had a response that gave you a neutralizing antibody above the threshold of protection. So it did give some degree of protection. And the question was, it was protection clearly against the wild type.

However, the boost, either 21 or 28 days later, was tenfold higher. So it went, for example, from one to 100, to well over to one to a thousand, higher (ph). The reason that's important, not only because of the height of the response and the potency of the response, but as you get to that level of antibody, you get a greater breadth of response and by breadth of response, we mean it covers not only the wild type and currently circulating virus, but also the variants that we see circulating, particularly the 117 and the 351. So it's not just a matter of potency, it's a matter of the breadth of what you can cover.

The other theoretical issue that could be problematic with regard to only a single dose, that if you get a sub optimum response, the way viruses respond to pressure, you could actually be inadvertently selecting for more mutants by a sub-optimum response. So for that reason, we have continued to go by the fact that we feel the optimum approach would be to continue with getting as many people on the their first dose as possible but also making sure that people on time get their second dose.

And finally one thing I want to emphasize, as we know and we've heard and it is true, that the projection is that the 117 lineage would likely become dominant in the United States by the end of March. Please remember that the efficacy of the currently utilized vaccines, the two mRNA, are quite effective against the 117 lineage.

So, underscoring what Dr. Walensky just said, the two things we can do is, A, make sure we adhere to the public health measures that Dr. Walensky just mentioned, and B, get as many people vaccinated as quickly as we possibly can. That's the best defense against the evolution of variants.

I'll stop there and back to you, Andy.

SLAVITT: Thank you, Doctor.

All right. Why don't we go -- why don't we go to questions?

MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, guys.

I'm not seeing any hands raised but if you could raise your hand, we could go ahead and start Q&A.

All right. First, we go to Kaitlan Collins at CNN.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi. So I have two questions. One about the variants. I know that before we've gone over them and we've said the latest numbers have been a couple of hundreds cases, but we also know that, you know, we're pretty behind on sequencing and working to ramp that up. So what number do we think is actually out there and how much higher do you think it could be than the numbers that we've actually identified positively so far?

And then my second question is about a comment that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made, saying that they are considering requiring testing for domestic flights, what would the benefits of that be given we know just how much transmission there is in the U.S. right now, and the data on how much it spreads on flights when everyone is wearing a mask or the lack of, I guess? Would there be benefits to that actually happening?

SLAVITT: So, maybe first, why don't I turn to Dr. Walensky to talk about our ongoing efforts at surveillance and increasing our knowledge, and maybe a little bit about what the current state of knowledge might be with regard to these variances? Doctor?

WALENSKY: Great, thank you. And thank you for the question.

What I can say is we're learning more about the number of variants and the number of variants that you're hearing increase is very much at least in part due to the fact that we're doing a lot more sequencing of these variants. So over the last three weeks or so, we've increased our sequencing about tenfold. So as we look more, we're certainly going -- anticipate we might find more.

Over the next several weeks, we are hoping, we're planning actually to not only get -- have collaboration with the state labs from every state so we could make sure we're sampling from every state, but also from -- with collaboration from commercial labs as well as academic labs. So we anticipate that we're probably going to be sequencing up to three or four, more than we're already sequencing, and I think once we have more sequencing that's happening, we'll have a better idea as to how many variants there are and what proportion are out there.

SLAVITT: So, I'll take --

COLLINS: So how much higher -- do we have a ballpark estimate of how much higher it is that what we actually know right now? Because I think the understanding is that it is a lot higher than what we know. Is that correct?

WALENSKY: I would be reluctant to give you an estimate right now based on our current data but I would be happy to get back on you on that one.

SLAVITT: Let me take your second question. I haven't heard Secretary Buttigieg's comment, but what I would say -- and Dr. Walensky may want to comment -- is that with regard to domestic travel, I think in the words of Dr. Walensky and CDC, now is not the time to be traveling if at all possible.

So, Dr. Walensky, do you want to say a word about traveling and safety measures with regard to travel?

WALENSKY: Yeah, what I would add is the more screening that we're doing in places where people are gathering, I think the more asymptomatic disease we're be detecting and certainly, there's a lot of -- there's more gathering that happens in airports and so to the extent that we have available testing to do testing -- first and foremost, I would really encourage people to not travel. But if we are traveling, this would be yet another mitigation measure to try and decrease the spread.

SLAVITT: Thank you. Let's go to the next question.

MODERATOR: Next to Brian Karem with "Bulwark".

BRIAN KAREM, REPORTER, THE BULWARK: Thank you very much. And thanks for taking the questions.

This question is Dr. Fauci.

Dr. Fauci, we are talking about the mutant varieties of this virus and we are stressing that we need to get as many vaccinated as possible. Now when I speak to scientists, they tell us that eventually that viruses like this tend to mutate to a less harmful or less virulent strain, there is any concern that this particular virus is mutating into a more virulent strain or a more dangerous strain, and that it is more dangerous as it mutates? And then I have a follow up.

FAUCI: Okay. Well, the answer to your question is right now, we certainly don't have any data to indicate that it is mutating into a less virulent strain. The additional data that came out from the U.K. about it having a degree of increased of virulence, that is still I think something that -- I won't say that is questionable. But I think that needs to be confirmed.

But thus far, no evidence that it is less virulent. Sometimes when viruses mutate, to spread more efficiently, they become less virulent, but we do not have any data to indicate that that is, in fact, happening with SARS-CoV-2.

KAREM: And the follow up is if it is becoming -- or if your concern is that it is more virulent, how long will the efficacy of the current vaccines under this threat (ph), you've be able to game that out to determine when that efficacy will -- will be dampened or will lessen?

FAUCI: Well, I think that's obviously going to take an observation over a longer period of time. You -- we've got to really be careful because there are two things that are going on right now. A virus that is transmissible and is virulent, and the degree of transmissibility and the degree of virulence can actually overlap in result because you've heard us say on our briefings that a virus that has a greater degree of transmissibility will be making more people sick.

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The more people that get sick, the more people that will be hospitalized and the more people that are hospitalized, you're likely get more deaths. But on a one to one basis, whether or not it is truly more virulent, right now, we don't have any indication that that's the case here.

And we'll just have to continue to observe, which we do. You know, the vaccine trials, they ended and came up with a efficacy of 94 percent to 95 percent. But the trials go on for two years. So we'll learn a lot more over the next couple of years.

So they're still following up on this, both from the study as well as being report to the FDA. So, if there's any information in that regard, it will become available to us as the months and year goes by.

SLAVITT: Thanks, Brian.

KAREM: Thank you.

SLAVITT: Hey, Dr. Fauci, just to clarify something, if you wouldn't mind, very fair question from Brian speculating about the future. But maybe you could emphasize what we know today about the efficacy and safety of the viruses relative to what the threats we face today.

FAUCI: Well, right now, what we're seeing now in our country is still a dominant original wild type virus of which the vaccines are highly efficacious, 94 percent to 95 percent. The immediate concern that we have is that the fact that we have the 117 in certainly a considerable number of states reported with a number of people that modeling would tell us, Andy, that it could become dominant by the end of March. That's the sobering news.

The encouraging news is that the vaccines that we're currently distributing right now are quite effective against that particular variant. Less so against the -- against the South African, the 351, but hopefully we'll get the virus under much better control by the time there's any indication that that might become dominant.

SLAVITT: Got it.

FAUCI: So again, it gets back, Andy, to vaccinating as many as you can and implementing the public health measures.

SLAVITT: Great, thank you.

OK, next question, please?

MODERATOR: Next, we go to Sharon LaFraniere at "New York Times."

SHARON LAFRANIERE, REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES: Hi, thank you for taking my question.

I have actually two questions. The first is statistical for Andy. You told us how many doses were administered in the long-term care program. What is the total number of doses that were set aside for that program? In other words, what's the denominator?

And then, secondly, on the new pharmacy program, is there going to be a separate registration system for that? And, if so, what does that mean for the people who have had already signed up at their local health departments and had been waiting in line? Do they start over? Is there a going to be some kind of integration between these different systems now?

SLAVITT: Thank you for the question. I thought I was off the hook when you said it was statistical. I was quite confident it was going to go to one of the experts.

Relative to the long-term care program, there are a lot of numbers moving around and so I think it is important to emphasize what I -- what I talked about earlier, which is that we've administered 4.8 million doses to more than 3.7 million people. And what we don't have for you today is a break down of how many doses are first and second doses. Likewise, what percentage of the population in nursing homes or long-term care facilities are fully vaccinated.

So I want to make sure I'm speaking as precisely as possible to what the CDC study said and I would invite Dr. Walensky when I'm finished if there is any additions or corrections to that, to add them, but it's important that I think things are phrased that way.

We do know that for the centers that have vaccination clinics, the median number of people, this was as of January, the median number of residents vaccinated was 80 percent. So that gives you, I think, a decent approximation.

In terms of pharmacies, many of the pharmacies do have their own registrations systems in place. And so those are the registration systems that I think they will likely continue to use in the near term. I think your question about dealing with separate registration systems is a good one, for example people may want to try to understand more about how they can find a place where they can get vaccinated and I think particularly as there is more supply, that's going to be important.

And I have nothing to announce today other than that we are looking very closely at that question and how we might be able to help people.

[11:25:08]

Should we go to the next question?

MODERATOR: We should go to Kristen Welker at NBC.

KRISTEN WELKER, REPORTER, NBC NEWS: Hi, everyone. Thank you.

First question is, can you give us your assessment of some of the states that have begun to relax their protocols, for example, Iowa among those who has reversed some of the indoor requirements in terms of masking and public social distancing?

And also, given that a number of schools all across the country are discussing how they are going to reopen -- there is an urgency to that matter, I know that you said that the CDC's guidelines for school reopening would be coming soon. When could people expect to see that? And have you gotten to a place where you could give us any indication about whether you think teachers should be vaccinated before schools reopen?

SLAVITT: Great. Well -- I think both of those are probably going to head for you, Dr. Walensky, but let me -- let's see -- the first one is your comment on states or local jurisdictions that may be relaxing some of the public health standards that the CDC has been recommending.

WALENSKY: So, maybe I'll just start and say given that we're still at over 100,000 cases a day, I would discourage any such activity and I would say that we are still in the first 100 days where we wanted certainly everybody masked for the first 100 days. I think we have yet to control this pandemic. We still have this emerging threat of variants and I would just simply discourage any of those activities. We really need to keep all of the mitigation measures at play here if we're going to get control of this pandemic.

And in that regard, as we move towards and think about schools, what we know mostly about schools in terms of the data are that most infections come into the schools through the community. The data from schools suggest that there is very little transmission that is happening within the schools, especially when there is masking and distancing occurring and than when there are transmissions in the schools, it is because they brought -- been brought in from the community and because they are breaches in masking and distancing.

So if we want to get our schools open and our schools open safely and well, the best way to do that is to decrease the community spread. So I would say we need to keep up our social distancing and our masking and other mitigation measures. Our CDC guidance on school reopening will be coming in the days ahead. And I look forward to thinking through those with everybody.

SLAVITT: Great. Thank you. Do we have a next question?

MODERATOR: Last question we'll go to Isaac Stanley-Becker at "Washington Post".

ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER, WASHINGTON POST: Thanks for taking my question.

It follows up on Kristen's first question. So, in light of the fact that this is the recommendation of the CDC, can you say a little bit more about what the administration is doing to communicate this guidance and these instructions to governors and other officials out in the country, discouraging them from taking some of the steps? Or is -- ultimately, is this largely a state and local matter where the administration's power is limited?

SLAVITT: So I just want to confirm not that the question was asked that long ago, but your question -- you're talking about conversations with governors about steps that they're -- those that are taking steps to relax mitigation standards. Is that -- is that your question?

STANLEY-BECKER: That's right. Just -- if you could say a little bit more about what the administration is doing to provide counsel and instructions non issues like mask mandates, dining restrictions to, you know, especially in light of the spread of these variants?

SLAVITT: Well, all across government, we talked to the states incredibly frequently. So maybe we'll go around see, Dr. Walensky, if there's anything you want to add to your previous answer.

WALENSKY: I will just say I think our stand on this is pretty well- established. We -- I attend a weekly governor's call at least and I know I've been in touch one-on-one with numerous governors already. So I'm doing my best and I would be happy to be doing more to encourage the states to decrease their community spread so that we can decrease the threat of the variants, decrease our hospitalizations and get this pandemic under control.

SLAVITT: And the only thing I'll add to that is that, you know, we understand the pressure the government -- the governors are under. We are taking a collaborative approach as much as possible to sharing with them the data, helping them understand as we've covered on this call, why we're in such a critical period to combating the virus, and I'll hope to continue to work to persuade and partner with states and localities to continue.