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“We are following the science. What is happening now is all the major science operations in this country and the group of 25 people that we have put together is looking at all the possibilities of what is happening now. We have a pandemic among the no. If you’re vaccinated, you’re safe, “Biden said later Thursday in a meeting with union officials.
“They are investigating all aspects of any change that might or might take place,” Biden continued.
“Together we are not out of the woods yet and you will want to make thoughtful decisions to protect your health and that of your family and your community,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the United States Centers for Disease Control. . and Prevention, during an information session for federal officials.
The nation, Walensky said, has arrived at “another pivotal moment in this pandemic.”
Biden, whose early term was largely devoted to successfully containing the pandemic, has watched with concern the erasure of some of those gains. He received a briefing from the Oval Office of members of the administration’s health team on Thursday afternoon on the state of the pandemic, as well as the US vaccination program; it happened at a later event in the East Room almost an hour late.
“We’re kinda stuck in this other office that I work in,” Biden said.
The heightened urgency comes as concerns mount in parts of the country where the number of cases is rising. Most are places where vaccination rates remain low. Officials, adamant that the current outbreak could have been avoided if more people had been vaccinated, still fear hospitals may be overrun or resources depleted.
“We are seeing the consequences of what we have been warning about for a month,” an administration health official told CNN. “It’s serious and it’s spreading faster than expected.”
Some government officials have discussed revising the mask guidelines for vaccinated Americans, a move guided by health experts but nonetheless fraught with political messages and concerns. Other officials, hoping to frame the situation around stalled vaccination rates, have sought to tackle the widespread misinformation about vaccines that has seeped into conservative circles.
Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, described the administration as “concerned about the increase in cases among the unvaccinated” during Thursday’s briefing. He announced a $ 100 million injection into rural health clinics to support vaccine education and awareness efforts, and an investment of $ 1.6 billion in testing and mitigation measures in high-risk institutions, including prisons, housing for victims of domestic violence and homeless shelters.
A number of factors are currently at play in the way the administration is approaching the situation. Senior officials have sought to stress that unvaccinated people are almost exclusively at risk of serious illness or death. The president himself made the point at a CNN town hall on Wednesday while noting the dramatic improvement in the situation since taking office in January.
“We have a pandemic for those who haven’t been vaccinated – it’s that basic, that simple,” he said, adding, “You’re not going to get Covid if you have these vaccines.”
His comments amounted to an exaggeration of vaccine protection against disease; even one of his own White House officials tested positive for Covid-19 this week, despite having been fully vaccinated. However, most studies continue to show that vaccines dramatically reduce the risk of serious illnesses that cause people to be hospitalized or even kill them.
At the same time, the new emergency emanating from the White House reflects the need to deal with the surge. Biden’s work against the virus is likely to be heavily reflected in his political messages over the coming months, and his staff said they expected him to continue to focus on the progress he made. ‘he realized about the pandemic.
It was an easier message to convey when cases were on the decline, including when Biden celebrated July 4 earlier this month with a largely unmasked crowd on the South Lawn.
Current levels of cases, hospitalizations and deaths are nowhere near where they were at the peak of the pandemic. But the United States now registers an average of 34,056 new cases of Covid-19 every day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University – a 55% increase from last week. Vaccination rates, which health experts have highlighted as a key part of the plan to bring the virus under control, are at their lowest since January, with an average of 516,441 doses reported administered each day over the past week, according to the CDC.
Renewed discussions among officials over revising the mask recommendations revolve around masking messages the White House should offer and guidance the CDC should issue, according to sources familiar with the matter. White House officials have repeatedly stated that it would be up to the CDC whether or not to change the official guidelines.
“They have to do something,” said a senior official, stressing the importance of public messages amid growing questions.
Already, some administration officials have resumed wearing masks in public due to local guidelines. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was interviewed live on CNN wearing a mask as he visited a Las Vegas facility where the administration’s Covid emergency response teams are based .
The teams have been dispatched to areas where authorities are concerned about the deadly combination of low vaccination rates and a significant presence of the Delta variant.
“We are going to do what we have done before, but we are going to do it with intensity,” he said.
And First Lady Jill Biden, visiting Japan as part of an official two-person delegation to the Tokyo Olympics, wore a mask to meet the country’s prime minister and his wife.
Officials are aware that the lifting of mask requirements for vaccinated Americans was in part intended to incentivize getting vaccinated; reapplying them could undo this.
In a separate daily briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki called reports on the mask talks “a little out of breath.”
“There hasn’t been a change. And it’s pretty clear now that if you’re vaccinated you don’t need to wear masks,” Psaki said Thursday.
Still, she indirectly acknowledged that conversations about whether vaccinated Americans should wear masks were ongoing within the government. And the last time the CDC changed mask guidelines – dropping recommendations for those vaccinated – the White House was notified less than a day in advance.
“We never said the battle was over. It’s still going on. It would be more worrying, or should be more worrying, for all of you and the American people if we didn’t have these conversations,” he said. she declared.
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