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tv   Katy Tur Reports  MSNBC  May 4, 2021 11:00am-12:00pm PDT

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i am katy tur. as we come on the air we are waiting for president biden to speak about covid and what life could look like this summer, and he's expected to announce he is expected for the u.s. to vaccinate 70% of americans by july 4th. and then a new report could come at anytime about pfizer authorizing the vaccinations for up to 16 million more americans, and a sigh of relief for a lot of parents and summer camps who have been anxiously awaiting this news. pfizer says volunteers in the clinical trial had similar side effects as older teens and in a moment i will talk with one of those teen volunteers. the u.s. would be the first country to vaccinate kids this
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young, but there are, however, concerns among doctors and scientists that parents who have been resistant to get the shots themselves will keep their kids from getting it as well, and there are also kids themselves who do not want it. >> part of this is the behavior of the country and how good we are at unifying and coming together to reach every single individual, to try and send the message that vaccines are safe and effective, and our case rates will come down even further. another big move on vaccines today first reported by "the washington post." the white house today told that states that have vaccine supply they leave unordered will become available to other states. the use it or lose it strategy has the potential to transform how the vaccine flows across the country. then there's the continued
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confusion over cdc guidance about masks. i did mention summer camps a moment ago, and there is this from new york magazine. masks must be worn at all times even outdoors by everyone, including vaccinated adults and children as young as two years old. the exceptions are for eating and swimming and the guidance notes if a person has trouble breathing or unconscious, no masks needs to be worn. where do i begin on that? joining us, dr. mario ramirez and serves as the pandemic and emerging threats coordinator at hhs during the obama administration, and also with me is 14-year-old ty bropic.
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and you are focusing on slightly older -- not quite kids but older younger people that are nervous or hesitant to get the vaccine. what are you hearing? >> yeah, teenagers and 20-somethings, the millennials and zers, and they range from legitimate questions about what are the long hfr term affects and confusion after they saw what happened with johnson & johnson, wear a mask, don't wear a mask, stay home, go to school, and there's crazy stuff on social media like they are not really giving you a shot, they are putting a tracking device in there. and now doctors on on the front lines of fighting
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disinformation, and including here at the jefferson health, and he does what he has to do, he will dance, he will make jokes, he will tell people how crazy it is, some of the things that are out there, all with the idea of informing them. he knows they will listen. you take a listen. >> i think that it is good to have a open discussion and ask questions, you know, i think we often underestimate the intelligence of jen z, but if they are opening to having a conversation and asking those questions, we're there to answer those questions, and that's the reason why many of us health professionals are getting on social media. >> reporter: when you talk about the ambitious goals, you have to go for the millennials. 62 million of them in this country, not to mention the zoomers and many more that will be eligible for vaccines, so the biden administration is reaching out and they know they have to
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do work with this age group, including, you will note, the next jen america, katy, on the campaign trail they were very big at getting young people engaged and starting next week they will start sending out 1 million text messages to their followers encouraging people to get vaccinated, and it's gearing up in a lot of ways and it's critically important if the administration will continue to be able to set those goals and meet them, katy. >> got to convince them in forms that they follow. ty, let's talk about your decision to take part in this trial. what made you want to do it? >> well, my mom presented the idea to me, and she said that i could be one of the first -- >> i think we just lost ty. we will try and reconnect with
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him, and we'll work on that right now. dr. ramirez, i will go to you, and the news that 12 to 15-year-olds can get vaccinated, and there are a lot of parents breathing a sigh of relief and there are parents that might be welcoming this, or wondering if it's a good idea and are we sure it's safe? what's your message to them? >> i think overall it's good news, katy. we're hitting this place in the country right where we have about 45 to 48% of the population that has had their first dose, and kids will add a significant population that we can add as well, and we are running into this place where vaccination rates are slowing considerably, and the same time the rates are slowing we are trying to reopen the things back up and that includes work places to entertainment venues and classrooms. the question is if we run into places where people are more hez opportunity to take the vaccine, what will be our strategy to adjust for that, if we are going to be opening work places, do we
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open up retesting, and there are good organizations that are doing work in this phase, but the question is if we are going to get to this place where people are more and more hesitant about vaccines, what will be our strategy to deal with that? >> i got a question for you, though. how do you decide that 12 is the cutoff? what is the difference between a 12-year-old and 9-year-old? how do you decide the age ranges for the trials and also for the approvals? >> yes, so pediatric drug trials follows a series of steps. as you are lowering the age, they typically group people together in bands, and you go age 12 to 16, and then the next cohort is 8 or 9 to 12, and then the next group is lower than that. it's based on a fashion that is
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based on how pediatric physiology develops. >> ty, we have you back and i will ask the question again, what made you want to be part of this trial? >> we're just having really bad luck with ty. unfortunately. we will try again. dr. ramirez, one of the other things that struck me today and is striking a lot of parents is the summer camps, everybody, masks outdoors in the middle of july even if you are vaccinated, and it seems untenable, unworkable. >> it reminds me what the situation was like when i was working at hhs during the ebola outbreak, and i am reminded with how hard it is to keep up with public health guidelines, and i promise cdc officials have been
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evaluating the guidelines for week and trying to protect the public health and at the same time we're seeing changes in the spread of the disease on the ground and it's hard to keep up with that. i think cdc is doing their best to keep up with, you know, what we recognize as disease outbreak and are continuing to update those guidelines. so often it's not fast enough with what the public wants to see, and as an organization, the cdc has been maligned through a lot of the pandemic, but i know there are hard working people there trying to do the best they can do keep the public safe, and they are going to update the guidelines in time. >> what about the lose it or use it strategy the biden administration will now employ? >> i very much agree with this policy and it came up a couple weeks ago in michigan, and at the time they were using a population-based strategy and said they would not change that, and several weeks later we are
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in a different place in the pandemic and we have several states turning down orders or slowing their orders for vaccines and there are other areas that definitely still need them, and it makes good sense if folks don't want to take the vaccine or need to do more work to convince those people, and we should get the vaccines into the arms of those ready to take them, and as a idea, it moves country closer to a state of immunity. >> ty, we will try one more time. hope you can hear me. why did you participate in the trial? >> so my mom presented the idea to me, and i thought it was a really good opportunity for people my age to start, like, getting the vaccine and getting vaccinated. once a lot of people my age get vaccinated, hopefully the curve will go down and we can go back to getting masks off, stopping temperature checks, and hanging
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out at friends' houses and all the stuff we used to be able to do before covid hit but now we can't do due to covid. >> so often times adults are completely out of touch with how to reach children. what do you suggests? what is the best messaging campaign to reach kids your age, ty, to convince them to get this vaccine? >> well, kids my age, what we really want to do is hang out with friends and go over to peoples' houses and party with other people, so i would say, if you get this vaccine, that's the first step to going back to seeing other people and hanging out with friends and all of the stuff we used to be able to do. >> exactly what i think the rest of us want to do as well. ty, thank you so much. i am glad we were able to fix that connection. and dr. ramirez and chris
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jansing, thank you both as well. now, health experts racing to keep one country's terrible new wave of coming here. the surge in india is getting worse by the day, and they have more than 20 million cases, and hospitals at a breaking point overwhelmed with the sick and dying, and critical life-saving supplies are now running low. sky news correspondent broke with the doctor that runs the hospital in new delhi. >> we're working with the numbers, and the numbers are overwhelming. there's not one single hospital that can do this much and we have reached our limits of what we can do as a hospital. and it should have started earlier, and the government has to intervene in more ways than just providing oxygen. >> in the united states, many
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indian americans are desperate to find help for their families thousands and thousands of miles away. communities like this one in seattle banded together sending supplies and coordinating support for relatives abroad. joining me now from seattle is msnbc medical contributor, dr. vin gupta. >> with all of these activities here across the world, this desire to get supplies to india as quickly as possible, life-saving supplies, katy, and we caught up with a gentleman yesterday and he went to extraordinary lengths to get his sick cousins in india oxygen concentrators, and this is what he said when we spoke to him in
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a moving bit here. >> of course we feel guilty when we think about our families suffering in india, and we have the privilege of being vaccinated we are safe and secure and if something were to happen to our children, we could rush to the hospital, and i look at my cousin and i wonder the fear that must go through her heart. >> katy, it costs him $3,000 to purchase three oxygen concentrators that will take at least a week to get to india to save his cousin's life, and problem hundreds of dollars to get the shipment secured to india, and that's the desperation that all in the india community is feeling. >> what we are hearing from doctors out there, dr. gupta, is they need more than medical supplies and they need people and doctors, and any
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consideration being given to american doctors, american emergency workers going out there and trying to help, much like doctors from around this country came to new york in the middle of the crisis here last year. >> you know, i will say this is me putting on my air force reservists hat, and there's a capability for anybody in the biden administration here, and it's called critical care air transport, and the nature of the threat has changed and we should consider doing that. we have forces ready that could help, to your point. if we set the example other countries will follow, so yes, absolutely, we should be doing more in terms of lev leveraging assets, and be so our air force capabilities could be rendered more useful to get more oxygen
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where it needs to be. lastly, the patent limitations and patent infringement laws are making it impossible for india to get their own vaccine supply, and we need president biden to lift the patten limitations now, and so we can deal with the crisis meaningfully. >> dr. gupta, thank you so much and joining us with all of that. in moments president biden is expected to announce what the white house is doing to get more americans vaccinated. we will bring that to you live once it happens. later, former president trump could be making a return to facebook and if facebook allows him back will other platforms follow? first up, the house minority leader got caught bashing liz cheney on a hot mic, and what
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house republicans have a problem. what do you do with a member of leadership that is not afraid to call donald trump a liar? moments ago axios detailed a report released showing how mccarthy leveled against his own party, liz cheney today. her refusal to lie alongside him. according to axios, while caught on a hot mic, mccarthy said of cheney, quote, i think she's got real problems. i've had it with her, and you know i lost confidence and, well, somebody just has to bring a motion and i assume that probably will take place. nbc news has not confirmed the audio or the axe yo report. mccarthy denied the growing
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discontent of liz cheney that has anything to do with her pointed opinions of trumpism, but rather, he says, it's about messaging. >> i have heard from members concerned about her carrying out the job, the message, and we have to be working as one to win the majority. majorities are not given, they are earned. that's the message about going forward. she's more concerned about the job ability to do, and what is the best step forward and working together instead of attacking one another. >> a sports person rejected that, saying, quote, this is about whether or not the republican party will perpetuate lies about the 2020 election and continue to whitewash what happened on january 6th, and liz will not do that, and that's the issue. and it was put this way this
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morning, quote, republicans don't want to hear what cheney has to say even if she's telling the truth. joining me now is msnbc news correspondent, leann caldwell. liz cheney is telling the truth about the election and it seems like she's about to lose her leadership position for doing so. >> that's absolutely right, katy. she's the one being punished for telling the truth, which is a pretty remarkable thing within itself, but every time she did push back against the former president it made obvious what leader kevin mccarthy was not doing, not pushing back against the former president. this has come to a head, and leader mccarthy could have tamped down all the criticism from his members and he has not done so and instead fed into it by declining to defend her publicly. we have had news that there are
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attempts to replace her in the sense of representative stephanic of new york, one that came to the former president's defense in the first impeachment trial very vigorously, and is expected to whip votes to be the next conference chair, assuming cheney is removed from that position by a conference vote as early as next week, and my sources are telling me if representative stephanic wants it, it's hers. there's overwhelming support for her during the conference, and while we're still talking about liz cheney and the divisions in the conference over her, members are starting to move on and look for who her replacement is going to be. >> we just got to talk about the consequences of this, ana. this is a woman that is deciding to say, look, i will not pretend the emperor is wearing clothes when the emperor is not wearing clothes.
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it seems like it's a very dark omen for the entire republican party and frankly for democracy if you have 50% of the country deciding they will believe something that is blanketly not true. >> i think a couple things are really important to layout here. i never -- i have been covering congressional leadership and backbiting and infighting that happens along the way for a long time and i have never seen it this bad, and certainly never this bad in public. clearly what was aired on that hot mic is what mccarthy feels, and he's looking towards '22, and this is not what republicans need to be focused on instead of trying to win back the majority, and it's a real reaction to the fact that liz cheney is in a different place in terms of what she's willing to say and how she
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is willing to criticize trump, and many of the republican majority don't want to hear her on the news saying what she's been saying, taking the president to task and saying the election did happen, and the election results have been certified and are correct. that's not where a lot of house republicans are. >> am i crazy to inject skepticism about mccarthy not knowing there was a hot mic on him? everybody knows when you sit down, everybody can hear you. what do you think of that? >> you know, i don't know if i want to put the intention that he wanted his hot mic out there, and he had been pretty clear saying he was not going to do what he had done before, which is basically protect her last time there was a snap election, and i think this is the next
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step in that process, and at this moment it's just a matter of when and not if that election happens, and if you have stephanic whipping votes on this, and that's a step that we saw last time liz cheney, and nobody was stepping up trying to assume the role of the conference chair, and this is really, i think, a lot more serious of a challenge for her. >> let me also add this. mitt romney tweeted a moment ago weighing in on this, he said every person of conscience draws a line between which they will not go. liz cheney refuses to lie. as one of my republican senate colleagues said to me following my impeachment vote, i wouldn't want to be a member of a group
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that punished someone that followed their conference. is there a house divide between senate republicans here, can you say that? >> i don't know if that's the divide. senate republicans are not having the infighting as house republicans are because it's a much more moderate body for the most part, but there's obviously a divide between trump republicans and those that want to move on from the party, and there's a much larger number of the trump republicans in the house of representatives, and that's why they are dealing with this, and they are also getting different mess edge from their leaders, and mccarthy is still afraid to break with the former president where in the senate you see senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell, that wants nothing to do with the former president ever again and he's trying to move his party away from the former president as much as possible. he blames donald trump for
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losing those two georgia seats and he blames donald trump for being minority leader instead of majority leader? >> you have to wonder how things will shake out if donald trump is allowed back on social media. part of that decision could come tomorrow. ladies, thank you very much. still ahead, scary new footage of the moment an overpass collapsed in mexico city. first up, though, it could give donald trump, as i said a moment ago, the megaphone he has been missing for four months. will facebook welcome him back? have you ever seen this before? she's so beautiful. janie, check this out. >come here. >>let me see. (chuckles) she looks...kind of like me.
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the legality of weapons available to these kinds of terrorists foreign and domestic has increased. the consequence of the internet and encryption means that they can send information and make plans more swiftly and in secrecy than ever done before, and we have an emerging and accelerating threat and the department is putting its
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resources into defending the country with respect to both. >> attorney general, merrick garland, says the rise in domestic terrorism keeps him up at night and today he asked lawmakers for more funding to investigate and keep ahead of the threat, and he has been pursuing the january 6th rioters, opening up investigation into multiple police departments, applying a federal focus to several high-profile police killings and not to mention the raid on rudy giuliani's apartment and office. joining me now is pete williams. pete, we have a minute or maybe less before the president comes out, but give us the highlights from today. >> for one thing, none of the things you talked about in the beginning, the self rights prosecutions and so forth that he was asked about, he was not asked about the durham investigation or the capitol riot investigation, so there was
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lots he didn't talk about, but what he did say, he wants more money to expand the civil rights department and the community relations service has withered since he has been around that department, and republicans pressed him about why you want more money, and the attorney general said there's only so many we can get in there at a time and there's a limit to how many you can push in, but he hoped more immigration judges on the order would help produce the backlog for hearings for people that applied for asylum. you're right, his focus was on domestic terrorism especially and shoring up civil rights. e >> what was the response he got? >> congress agrees there should be more money spent for domestic terrorism, and he wants $45 million more for the fbi and 40
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million more for u.s. attorneys. >> thank you. and hear's president biden. we are in our vaccination program where we are, and what comes next is an effort to get this country back closer to normal. first -- where are we? well, as everybody knows i promised we would administer 100 million shots in my first 100 days. after we met that goal we doubled it to a historic 200 million shots. by the time we reached the 100 days last week, we shattered that mark with over 220 million shots in arms. as we stand here today almost 150 million americans have gotten at least one shot. over 105 million americans are fully vaccinated. and among the most vulnerable population is seniors, and we're nearing 85% with those who got their first shot, and 70% of the seniors are fully vaccinated.
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it's a dramatic turn around from where we were in january, and less than 2% of adults and less than 1% of seniors were vaccinated. not only that, but cases are down in 40 states these past two weeks. deaths are down dramatically since january. down over 80% among seniors, which includes a drop among hispanics of 80%, and african-americans at 70% for seniors. there are tens of thousands of americans alive today who would not be alive otherwise had they not had access to a rapid vaccination program. mothers, dads, neighbors, old friends, they are around now and thank god for that. now, where do we go from here? well, as we anticipated the pace of the vaccination is slowing, and now that the majority of american adults have gotten their first shot, but we are still vaccinating millions of americans every day.
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in fact, in the last ten days, one out of every ten adult americans got a shot, but soon we will have reached the adults who are most eager to get vaccinated, and at that point this effort will shift to a new phase, which is what i want to talk about today. our new phase will focus on three areas. first, kids, children between the ages of 12 and 15 years of age, they are not yet eligible for a vaccine, and the fda scientists are currently reviewing the data to decide if and when to authorize that age range for vaccinations. the fda and the fda alone will make that decision, but today i want american parents to know that if that announcement comes we're ready to move immediately, immediately move to make about 20,000 pharmacy sites across the country ready to vaccinate those
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adolescence as soon as fda gives the okay. we will ship those vaccinations to the pediatricians, so parents and children can talk to their family doctor about it and get the shot from the provider they trust the most, easy, fast and free. and if teens are on the move this summer, they can get their first shot in one place and the second shot elsewhere, and we know adolescence are at risk of getting covid-19, and they can get sick and spread the illness to others, and if the vaccine is authorized parents will take advantage of it and get their kids vaccinated.
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the second area of focus is making it more convenient for everybody to get a vaccine. we know that many adults have not been vaccinated because they have found it too confusing or difficult or inconvenient to get a shot. for those having trouble finding a location or making an appointment, we will make it easier than ever. we have formerly launched a simple website where you can find a vaccination location closest to you. that site is vaccines.gov. go there now and find a location to get the shot and make an appointment. also today, if you prefer texting, we have another easy way to get the shot. text your zip code to the following number, 438829. your zip code to that number, 438829.
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you will get a text back the location nearest to you with vaccines in stock right then and there. yes, you can text your zip code to 438829 and get a text back within minutes about the places nearest to you with vaccines available immediately, and send this information to your family, kids, friends who have not been vaccinated yet. starting this week we will direct all federal pharmacy partners to begin to provide walk-in hours. you will be able to get vaccinated without an appointment at the vast majority of pharmacy locations throughout the country, and we are encouraging our local state partners to continue running the sites they run, and we will ship
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new allocations of the vaccines to rural clinics so americans who don't live near one of the 175,000 vaccination sites will have new options that may be closer, may be closer than anything they thought. we know that vaccination rates are lower in rural areas and that's why we are going to get vaccines closer than ever to rural residents. also, as we wind down the large mass vaccination sites, we will move towards smaller locations, even more convenient to the unvaccinated. so for those who don't want to drive the distance to a large vaccination site, we will have sites, smaller sites, closer to the unvaccinated. in the first 100 days our goal is to make it possible for people to come and get vaccinated and we'll succeed beyond anybody's expectations, i
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believe. now we have to bring the vaccine to people who are less eager, so we also know that there are millions of americans who just need a little bit of encouragement to get the shot. i recently called on employers to do their part by offering paid time off for employees to get vaccinated. opening up a tax credit program that reimburses the businesses for the cost of giving the employee time off to get vaccinated. i want to thank the 1,000 businesses that stepped up so far. we will roll out new partnerships with the business community. we are working with major businesses like grocery stores to provide special deals like discounts for shoppers that come to the stores to get vaccinated, and it works both ways. bring them in to get vaccinated, and when they are in, they will get discounts to purchase goods in that store. further, we're working with major sports leagues to launch
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special promotions for their fans, things like ticket giveaways, and discounts on merchandise. other creative ways to make it easier and fun to get vaccinated -- making it sound more fun to get vaccinated, and not saying it's fun but they will have other things to look forward to besides getting it. visit vaccines.gov, or text your zip code to 438829. walk into your local pharmacy without an appointment, or go to the doctor or local health clinic, it's free and nearby, and every adult is eligible. you know, go get the shot as soon as you can. the third area of our focus is
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americans who still aren't sure they want to get vaccinated. we have seen the confidence in vaccine drive steadily these past few months, virtually every segment of the population, and as more and more americans see their friends and family get vaccinated, they are making the choice to get vaccinated themselves. democrats and republicans, progressives, conservatives, people of all persuasions are getting vaccinated. 75% of seniors have had at least one vaccine shot, and a wide amount of the population trusts the vaccine regardless of race and other things. getting vaccinated not only protects you, it also reduces the risks that you give the
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virus to somebody else. it could save your life or the lives of people you love. we're still losing hundreds of americans under 65 years of age every week, and many more are getting seriously ill from long stretches. look, even if your chance -- even if your chance of getting seriously ill is low, why take the risk when you have a safe, free and convenient way to prevent it? additionally, we know some people may need more information before getting the vaccine, and there's plenty of information for those to do their homework, and 150 million americans have gotten the vaccine, and talk to somebody you trust like your physician or pharmacists, or people that already have been
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vaccinated, and talk to your faith leaders or others in your community that you trust, look to those people to help answer your questions. i want to be clear, and i have been saying this a long time and i really believe this, this is not a democrat or republican issue. science behind the vaccines have been under development for decades. two of our vaccines were authorized under prior administrations, republican administrations. my administration, a democratic administration is doing the work to get hundreds of millions of shots in arms. while we may not always agree on everything, this is one thing people across the political spectrum can agree on, so i want to thank prominent conservatives like mitch mcconnell and a large group of republican groups in congress who have medical training and who have advanced getting vaccinated. i want to thank the 105 million americans of every background who are fully protected from one of the deadliest pandemics in
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our history. there's a lot of misinformation out there, but there's one fact i want everybody to know. people who are not fully vaccinated can still die every day from covid-19. look at the folks in your community who have gotten vaccinated and are getting back to living their lives, their full lives. look at the grandparents united with their grandchildren, and friends getting together again. this is your choice. it's life and death. i hope everybody knows within themselves and makes the choice that will help them and their loved ones be safe. get our businesses open again. get us back to normal. again, in the next two months our focus is going to be on three groups, kids between 12 and 15 who are awaiting potential fda authorization to get a shot, two, adults having trouble locating a place to get a shot or just have not gotten
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around to it, and three, those that need more convincing be convinced of the necessity of getting the vaccine. as we turn to this new phase we're also setting a new goal. two months from today, two months from today, families across the country are going to celebrate the fourth of july. our goal by july fourth is to have 70% of adult americans with at least one shot and 160 million americans fully vaccinated. that means giving close to 100 million shots, some first shots and others, second shots, over the next 60 days. of course, americans can still get shots after july fourth, and nobody should wait and let's try to hit the 70% mark at least with one shot before that day. it's another huge goal. as you may remember, we were initially focused on getting enough vaccines for every adult. we did that, we have enough
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vaccines, and now that we have the vaccine supply, we're focused on convincing even more americans to just show up and get the vaccine that is available to them. if we succeed in this effort, as we did with the last, then americans will have taken a serious a serious step towards a return to normal. that's july 4th. but we're not there yet. that's why i'm asking people to continue to follow the cdc guidelines. as we were work to get more people vaccinated. and to clear up any confusion, the good news is that last week the cdc said that vaccinated people do not wear to wear their masks outside. unless they're in a very crowded setting like a sporting event. and if we can continue to drive vaccinations up and case loads down, we'll need our mask even less and less. i know it will take time to get everything back to normal. i know, we're all going to have
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to be patient with one another. masks -- and needlessly divided this country. masking as direct said a patriotic duty. but, so, too, is treating even other with respect and patience. one time point. as i said in my address to congress last week, congress is going to be the arsenal for fighting covid-19. just like the arsenal for democracy in world war ii. not only because it will have kept us safe, but because of who we are. we've already committed to work, to send 60 million doses of astrazeneca vaccine to other countries. starting this month and into june. that means of all of the vaccines we've produced, 29 states at that time will have given about 10% to the rest of the world. it's a significant humanitarian commitment, in addition to our
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funding of covax. and i'll have more to say about that soon. i'll conclude with this. the light at the end of the tunnel is actually growing brighter and brighter. so americans have sacrificed and searched to make this progress possible, showing the best of who we are as a people. we need you. we need to you bring it home. get vaccinated. in two months, let's celebrate our independence as a nation. and our independence of this virus. we can do this. we will do this. thank you, all. may god bless you. may god protect our troops. thank you. >> mr. president, how much harder will this next phase be for the vaccination campaign? >> i'm sorry, you're both speaking one at a time. >> mr. president, with doesn't astrazeneca, what will be the
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criteria for australia or brazil -- >> we're helping brazil. and helping india specifically. i spoke to prime minister modi. what he needs most is the material and the parts to be able to have his machines that can make the vaccines. we're sending them that. we're sending masks and oxygen. we're doing a lot for india. with regard to the astrazeneca vaccine which we had, we have sent that vaccine to canada and to mexico. and other countries that we're talking to now. as a matter of fact, i talked to a head of state today. i'm not prepared to announce who else we're giving the vaccine to. but we're going to by the fourth of july have sent about 10% of what we have to other nations including the onces you mentioned. >> mr. president, how much harder will this next phase be for the administration? how much harder will be the next 100 days? >> well, i think in one sense,
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it's easier, in that it's up to convincing the american people, rather than guaranteeing them we'd have the supply for them. so that was really hard. it was really hard, as that old expression, zero to 60 miles an hour. it was very hard to get from a very low count to 600 million vaccines and sentence get up all of the logistics. but i think what's going to happen, it's my prayer that more and more people who get vaccinated are going to be listening to people who they love and are around. they're going to say, why don't you just go ahead and do it. there's some evidence, we still had a good dose of vaccine being administered in the last two weeks. and it's still moving. but we know we're going to get to a place where the doubters exist or the people who just -- i don't want to say lazy, just not sure how to get to where they want to go. it's going to be hard. so, we're going to keep at it. we're going to keep at it.
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i think at the end of the day, most people will be convinced by the fact that their failure to get the vaccine may cause other people to get sick and maybe die. >> mr. president -- >> okay, i promise i'll get to you. okay. and so, it's in one sense, it's harder, i mean, it's easier because i don't have to put together this massive logistical effort. but in the other sense, it's harder as beyond my personal control -- not control. but i could arrange and make sure those other things happen if we did it well. i think we did. but it's going to be harder. yes, ma'am. >> thank you. if this phase is not successful are there any circumstances under which you would require vaccines for people to do certain things like travel? and if not, what more can you do beyond that? >> well, i'm not going to -- i'm
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one of these guyses who thinks positively and not negatively. so there's more that we can do. one of the things we can do is we can continue to produce more of the vaccine. work harder to get it available to more people and export a lot of that to help. secondly, whether we're going to -- i think that we're going to continue to -- i don't think. we're going to continue to try to bring in an effectively spokespersons who represent communities that in fact people listen to. and it's going to get more granular, i think, rather than large. the likelihood of us being able to get, you know, 100,000 vaccinations in a week, at a major site is getting harder and harder. those people desperately wanted to get the vaccine. so, i think we're going to make some real progress here.
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we'll see. but we're going to keep at it. >> say that again. >> have you said whether you spoke to a trade representative on the issue of issuing waivers on vaccines? is that something you support? >> that's something that we'll decide as we go along, i haven't made that decision. >> do you work more efficiently with that? >> the answer is, we're going to, as long as there's a problem in the world, even if we solve it here, we're going to move as quickly as we can to get as many doses of moderna and pfizer as possibly could be produced and export those around the world. >> yes, ma'am, last question. >> mr. president, with the upcoming is there a meeting that -- >> that is my hope and
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expectation. we're working on it. >> mr. president, with vaccinations, 35 million, we need 35 million people to hit 70%. why not set it at 75% or 80%? >> i'd like to get to 100%. i think logistically we can get there by july 4th. by the way, it's not that july 4th the door is closed. it's just getting closer to normal. we're going to be vaccinating people into next fall. this is not something that all of a sudden july 4th we're just going to declare it's over. thank you so much. all right. 70% of american adults vaccinated by july 4th. that is the new benchmark. i have to say, i texted 43882
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nine. i texted the 30 rock zip code and i got a list of places that i can walk in and get a vaccine. it works. back with me is dr. ramirez. dr. ramirez, do you think we're doing a good job or this administration is doing a good job? >> i heard a focus of younger persons about age 12. they're going to try to improve convenience, you know, for folks who just haven't been able to get it, for that reason. and then they're going to try to reach out to people who are a little hesitant. i think from the strategy standpoint, those are the right groups to target. if we're going to hit 70%, that's where most of these people are going to live. so it's a challenging goal. you know, i think we're see something sizable dropoff in daily vaccination rates. and it's going to take a hard push to get to that number. but i think if we can achieve that, then i think the country really is in a fantastic place.
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>> i've got to tell you, it feels so good to walk outside without a mask. it feels great to sit down in a restaurant and not be too worried. my baby is still kicking like crazy. i'm excited to give her the antibodies that i'm going to get from the vaccine or that i've got friend the vaccine. it's great. go get vaccinated. dr. mario ramirez, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> that's going to do it for me today. if you're going outside, get vaccinated. again, you don't need to wear a mask. it feels amazing. text that number, walk into a pharmacy and get vaccinated right now. it's worth it. if you're staying in, ayman mohyeldin picks up our coverage right now. good afternoon, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin here in new york. president biden just wrapping up a speech in which he set a goal of getting 160 million americans. that is roughly half of the u.s. population fully vaccinated by july 4th. that is two

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