change that over not -- overnight, but it will assure americans are afforded the same civil rights extended to every other american across the nation. >> senate judiciary committee members heard from lawmakers and outside witnesses on the pros and cons of the lgbtq rights legislation known as the equality act. watch the entire hearing tonight beginning at 8:00 eastern on c-span. journal" continues. host: every week, we take time out for a deep dive looking at the response to the coronavirus pandemic. and across the country. this week, we will focus on the states and territories. we are joined by the chief medical officer for the association of state and territorial health officials, dr. marcus plescia. tell us about your organization. how many members do you have? guest: we have a professional

organization for the leadership of state public health departments, so we represent all of the states and seven territories in freely associated areas -- and freely associated areas. we represent the health officials, but also their leadership teams, so several hundred people when you look at that broader group. and we support them. we lobby for them. and we provide technical assistance to them. host: you have joined us a number of times during the pandemic here on "washington journal." as we talk here at the end of march and 2021, how is the vaccine distribution going? guest: we think it is going well. people seem to be interested in the vaccine, which is a good thing. we are seeing states move a lot faster now that the vaccine supply is greater. in some states, they have

actually opened up where anybody can get the vaccine. it seems to be well tolerated. there have not been reports of any serious adverse effects beyond of the few people who had allergic reactions. so, we are off to a good start. we are waiting for the supply to pick up, so that we can move even faster. host: there is a report from usa today, that they are tracking the covid distribution, the vaccine numbers i should say, and how many people have been vaccinated. they say about 13.3% of the population have received both doses, a quarter of the population has received at least one of the covid-19 shots. what's been the biggest hampering -- talking about supply, but also in terms of hesitancy and getting people n for the -- in for what is the biggest -- for their vaccine,

what is the biggest hesitancy? guest: so far, there has been a huge demand for the vaccine and we have not had enough supply to keep up. we are hearing some reports from surveys that some people are reluctant to get vaccinated for a wide range of reasons. but probably the biggest one is just anxiety about the vaccine. it's a relatively new way of making the vaccine. we have not provided this vaccine in the past. so i think some people are anxious about that. but i think that will improve as we have more vaccine and we will actually start offering it in physicians offices as well. that gives people a chance, people who are nervous, to talk to somebody that they trust. host: good news on the front page of the wall street journal, saying, the vaccine outlook -- output leaps ahead in the u.s. manufacturers are ramping up production, turning out for more doses a week than earlier in the

year, progress that is accelerating campaigns in the u.s. how much of this increase of supply and manufacturing is driven by policies of the biden administration? guest: i think that they have done a good job at really picking up the supply. we were not really expecting to have the bum in until april or may. i think they have been looking at getting more manufacturers to make the vaccine. so we have made good progress. we may have another vaccine come onto the market soon. so things are likely to pick up even further. host: dr. marcus plescia is our guest as we talk about the vaccine response in the states, the pandemic in the states and territories. we welcome your calls. 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8002 for independents

and all others. before we go to your calls, -- oh, i have given the numbers wrong. this is by time zones. 202-748-8000, eastern and central. 202-748-8001, mountain and pacific time zones. the most recent appearance by dr. fauci this week on capitol hill. let's hear what he had to say about the program so far in the u.s. [video clip] dr. fauci: the biggest challenge is multifaceted. one is staying ahead of the virus itself. we are doing a good job now, up to 2 million to 3 million vaccinations a day. literally every day that goes by, as more people give vaccinated, we can stay ahead of

what i would consider a race between our ability to vaccinate and the emergence of variants. we have well-established variants. locally, as the doctor mentioned, the vaccine does well against this. but there are others, that when you look at the antibodies induced by the vaccine and their capability of fighting against the use of variants, they are diminished anywhere from two to sixfold. fortunately, the response to the vaccine has been so robust that there still is enough cushion that you likely would maybe not prevent infection, but prevent severe disease resulting in hospitalizations and deaths. the challenge is to stay ahead of the variants. the other is to make sure, and it looks like we are doing a good job, of getting accessibility and implementation of getting the virus, the vaccine into people's arms,

making sure that we do it not only quantitatively but with equity, equity with regard to underserved populations. there's a lot of activity right now focusing on making that happen. host: from your experience so far, the term of equity, getting the vaccine to underserved populations, how well are we doing? guest: it has been difficult to track that, because we do not have good data on -- you know, we have the numbers on gender and age it, but not good data on race, ethnicity, occupation, income levels. some of that is because we are not asking. we should have better data on that. we are working on that. the cdc is working on that. but because we had such a push at the beginning to get as many people vaccinated quickly, i think that we, particularly as the supply ramps up, i think

they will circle back to make sure that we are making this available to everybody. i think there is room for improvement. host: back to the map from usa today. this is a look at the vaccines in the last seven days across the u.s. we mentioned at the top of the program, too, that one quarter, 25% of the u.s. has had at least one shot. if you think back to december or november of last year, are you -- is it about where you thought it would be in terms of the numbers of people getting the vaccine? back then, there was more talk about vaccine hesitancy. or more people than you expected are getting in line for the shot? guest: personally, this is better than i imagine debated where we would be here in the middle or end of march. 25% of people having at least

one does, that is really good. some of that is because, we were not so sure -- i mean, we were informed well by the administration that it would take time for the supply to pick up. and it has picked up much better than a thought. the demand has remained strong. that is what we want to see going forward, as demand drops off, now that we have vaccinated more motivated people -- we will have to seek, there are things we have not had to use it so far to push up the demand. we may have to shift into some of those strategies if we do see demanded drop off. host: for questions, 202-748-8000 for the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001, mountain and pacific. mike in woodstock, georgia. caller: good morning. thank you for having me. i wanted to ask about

socializing this more. i think that we have a dearth of response in the media about getting the vaccine out. people are talking about the numbers, that is fine, but coming up with a positive message that gets people more to the needle. what do you think about things that can be done about that? you talked about other strategies that might want to be employed when the demand falls off, but without good numbers where can you tell where the demand really is? guest: good point. we are getting to the stage, you know, we have been reluctant to push of the vaccine or advertise at the vaccine up until now because we have had limited supply. and early on, when we first tried to open things up, people got frustrated because there was not enough to go around. so we wanted to balance that, we

did not want to overpromise. now, supply is picking up and it is time to do more of that. basic public service announcements can help, particularly now that things are opening up and people know it is more widely available. working with medical providers, we found that to be effective with other vaccines, where people speak to their physician or health care provider. that is somebody that they trust. also, looking at other sectors of the community. for many people, the faith community is influential. and so working with faith leaders could help get the word out. and so those are things that we are shifting into now that the supply has picked up. host: were you surprised some states "as they did in terms of reducing -- states opened as quickly as they did in terms of reducing restrictions? guest: i think there is a lot of pressure to open things back

up. there's pressure on businesses that have not done well in the pandemic. we are urging that we move cautiously -- we need to get the vaccine participation numbers up a little bit higher, i think, before we open up to widely. so that has been -- too widely. so that has been our idea, to encourage people to be patient, but there is pressure to open things up as quickly as possible. host: charles in new jersey. you are on the air. caller: how are you doing? host: fine, thanks. caller: i am in the poorest county of the state of new jersey, and i have looked at the other counties around the state and they have much more, uh, access to the vaccine sites th an we have here in cumberland county. i live in cumberland county.

and it's -- i mean, if you try to get it, it's almost impossible. what concerns me is, i got lucky, i got both my shots. my wife is reluctant to go, so she said she would use me as a guinea pig, pretty much. but now she needs to get her shot. she's a 1a candidate. and they are letting everybody go get those shots, but not checking to see what category they are in. and, i mean, she is an older person. and she -- i'm having a difficult time finding an appointment for her. and i am registered with the state site and all that, but it's just, you know, i am getting sick and