so, so dr Fauci were in the M. And T. Bank Stadium last week with the vice
president, with the governor, a host of other people. What are your impressions
of that facility and what do you think of the tour? Well, it's really quite
impressive the how well organized the entire process is, and you know, and
you pull a few people aside and you ask them their opinion and you really get
the big, the real true scoop of it. And everybody said it was remarkably
efficient and convenient to do. You know, you got parking spaces, you got
lined up the different boots. It was kind of interesting to see that places
where people would formally be having a beer or buying a hot dog is a booth for
the computers, A booth to sign in, a booth for the pharmacy, A booth to get
injected. A booth to wait after you do it. It was really quite, really
impressive. I was very, very, positively impressed. So there seems to
be some hesitancy in Baltimore city uh where you know about 25% of the
population has been vaccinated a little bit more. Why do you think that is? Uh
it's in other parts of the state but but in Baltimore city as well and right
outside of D. C. And P. G. County as well, why do you think there's still
hesitancy at this point? You know, there are so many different reasons for
that. I don't think it's it's a uni dimensional phenomenon. I think a lot
of it is people who are you know, wanting to wait and see, kind of
reluctant to do that. There are some that might understandably mistrust a
government sponsored medical issue because of the sort of checkered
history going back decades and decades that get translated from generation to
generation. And I think that's the reason why what we have to do. And I
think we can get around this hesitancy by making sure that we really implement
this program that we put together for equity in the distribution. And that is
to get trusted messengers. There's a program called the Covid Community Core,
which is literally thousands of trusted messages that the people in the
community, including the community of Baltimore, feel confidence in. You know,
instead of having, you know, I go out and do a lot of discussions about why
it's important. But I bet you that someone who lives in downtown Baltimore
and Prince George's County, they hear it from a sports figure or an
entertainment figure or importantly their own clergy or their family doctor.
Those are the ones that they trust. So what we're trying to do is to get those
trusted messengers mobilized to get out into the community to explain to people
without being accusatory, without waving your finger at them. For not
getting vaccinated. To say, let's talk about why you don't want to get
vaccinated. And you could go to each and every point encounter it because
the one thing that you do have is you have the data to show that vaccines
historically have ended epidemics. It's remarkable when you sit down with
people and answer their simple questions about why they have hesitancy
or concern that you can get the overwhelming majority of people to be
able to really finally say, you know, if I do it for myself, but also for my
family and for the community because with people sometimes don't realize is
that they hear that younger people, which is the truth, it's not made up
when they get infected. The likelihood of their having a serious outcome is
considerably less. Then. If an elderly person or someone with an underlying
condition gets infected, they have much more of a risk of hospitalization and
serious outcome. But what young people need to appreciate is that even though
you don't get any symptoms if you get infected, you are nonetheless, by
allowing yourself to get infected, you're propagating the outbreak. So
you're becoming part of the problem as opposed to part of the solution.
Because what you might do is get infected and because you're young and
healthy, you don't get any symptoms, but you can then pass the infection on
to someone else who would then pass it on to someone else who then might
actually get seriously ill. So it's a combination of a personal
responsibility for your own health and a societal responsibility to make sure
you're not part of the phenomenon of spreading the infection around the
community Health officer told me last week that uh, here in Baltimore County,
that we're at the point where the supply is outweighing the demand.
Governor. Hogan said, we're not just here that, but he said, there's a
plateau is coming. Do you fear that that's coming? And is it coming too
soon? Well, I I don't, I think that inevitably will happen because as you
diminish the size of the cohort that needs to be vaccinated, it becomes a
little bit more difficult to get that smaller group vaccinated because as you
get more vaccine coming in, you may wind up having more vaccine. Then you
have people who are willing to step forward. That's the reason why you want
to diminish that Kai as in between the two, you want to make them actually be
one in one equal as the vaccine comes in. People get it. Remember that? Not
too long ago, there's a lot of people lined up to get vaccinated. We didn't
have enough vaccine and that's the reason why we had to give the priority
ranking of one A one B one C. And things like that. But we're not there
now. We're on the other side of the coin.
Um When the vaccine production started, many were hopeful because emerging bio
solutions and their production facility here in Baltimore was going to pump out
a lot of the J. And J. Vaccine uh that ran into all kinds of problems with the
F. D. A. Uh Have you been talking to FDA? Are you confident that that
production facility is going to be able to produce vaccine? Because it appears
now there's other parts of the world that could really use it, namely India.
Well, I hope so. I mean that's the reason why the facility was built to be
able to make vaccines, not only people here in the United States but globally.
I certainly hope that, you know, the FDA is not going to allow any products
that come out of any facility unless they're confident as to the safety, the
reproducibility and all the other things that they look at. So I hope
that gets resolved soon because we do need to get those doses out to the
people who need them um, on on over reopening things because our floor or
florida station will want this to florida's governor said today, he's
dropping the state of emergency. And uh, you know, essentially going to reverse
course when it comes to coronavirus restrictions. Is that a good idea? Well,
you know, it really depends upon the level of infection in a given community.
Like each community, each state, Each city almost certainly differs from the
other as a country. The level the seven day average of daily infections is
still unreasonably high. We can't declare victory. We just can't all of a
sudden say, where were there, where we want to be? It may differ from
community to community. Some may be better than others. I would just
encourage all the communities don't pull back prematurely. Make sure that
you continue to get people vaccinated because that's going to be the ultimate
solution. And if you still have a high degree of infection in your community,
you don't want to pull back on all public health measures. Uh, it's been a
big topic here on W B A L. As far as kids getting back in school, there's
been a lot of plans, you know, I'm sure you hear this question all the time. Uh,
should kids back be back in person five days a week in the fall? And is it is
it better to be back in classes? It some are they meant suffering with
their mental health? What's your, what's your opinion on that? Well, it's
absolutely better to have kids in person going to school. There's no
doubt about that. I mean, that's not even arguable. That's something that
really you must strive for. I believe that we will be able to get kids back
to school for the full term. I really do. And the reason is by that time,
hopefully we'll have the overwhelming majority of our population vaccinated.
The high school kids Will almost certainly be able to be vaccinated to
get into the full term and elementary school kids will have to wait a bit
longer, but that's no reason not to send them back to school because you
have now 80 or more of the teachers and the teaching personnel that support
teaching are getting vaccinated. So with all of that there's no I I would
predict and I feel pretty certain about it that there's no reason at all not to
have the kids back in school in the fall term. What are we going to be able
to stop wearing the masks? So that really is also dependent upon the level
of infection in the community. You get that level down. You're going to see
more and more flexibility on the part of the C. D. C. S. Recommendations. Um
Right now they say you can be in the home with other vaccinated people. You
can have physical contact, you don't need to wear masks. Now you can go
outside. Obviously it's a very low risk outside. You can travel safely without
a mask. I think as the weeks go by and more and more people get vaccinated.
The C. D. C. Is likely going to be much more flexible in their recommendations.
But there's some communities that are pushing back on the CBc saying we still
want people to wear a mask. I mean is that sending a confusing message? Well
you know you got to be careful when you say wearing a mask wearing a mask.
Under what circumstances? I mean you don't want to go into a area of the
country, a city, a state, a county where you have a high level of
infection into a crowded indoor restaurant without a mask. You don't
want to go into a crowded indoor bar without a mask. I mean that's the point
going in a place going outside. There are so many things that you can do
without a mask outside. It's a very low risk. All right dr Anthony Fauci as
always We love having you here. We hope to talk to you again sometime soon.
Thanks for joining us here on W. B. L. My pleasure. Good to be with you. Thank
you for having me.