WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — The White House COVID-19 response team will brief the nation as fully vaccinated Americans await guidance from federal health officials about what they can and can't do after receiving their shot.
The team which includes top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and other members will provide an update Monday at 11 a.m. ET. NewsNation will livestream the briefing in the player above.
It's unclear if the White House COVID-19 response team will use Monday's briefing to provide vaccinated Americans with this guidance.
The Biden administration said Friday it’s focused on getting the guidance right and accommodating emerging science, but the delays add to the uncertainty around bringing about an end to the pandemic as virus fatigue grows.
“These are complex issues and the science is rapidly evolving,” Walensky said Friday. “We are making sure and taking time to get this right and we will be releasing this guidance soon.”
More than 116.3 million vaccine doses have been distributed across the United States, with more than 90.3 million doses administered, according to the CDC. More than 30 million people have received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine. This does not account for those who have received the single-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which was authorized by the FDA last month.
While vaccination rates have been increasing and offer hope, Walenksy continued to urge Americans to “double down” on virus prevention measures amid concerning virus variants.
“I know the idea of relaxing mask wearing and getting back to everyday activities is appealing, but we’re not there yet,” Walensky said during a briefing Friday. “We have seen this movie before. When prevention measures, like mask mandates, are rolled back, cases go up.”
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said last month they are testing a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants of the virus. In January, Moderna said while its vaccine is effective against emerging variants that have appeared in the United Kingdom and South Africa, it would test a vaccine booster and an alerted booster against the South Africa variant.
J&J said in January its vaccine was 66% effective against multiple variants in a global trial involving nearly 44,000 people.
Walensky warned of a potential for a fourth wave of cases in the U.S. saying, "We have the ability to stop that from happening if Americans continue to follow public health protocols, including masking, washing hands and social distancing.”
There have been nearly 29 million confirmed cases in the United States and more than 525,000 Americans have died from the virus, according to data complied by Johns Hopkins University.
0 Comments