We are at a point in the pandemic where most COVID-19 deaths are preventable.

Ashish Jha

We have provided, I think, an extraordinary amount of transparency about his care : When he tested positive ; how he's done each day ; the evolving nature of his symptoms : is his runny nose a little worse, a little bit better ? like, we've been very, very open and transparent with all of that data.

We have 1.3 million doses of TPOXX -- the treatment for smallpox, it can also be used for monkeypox -- in our stockpile. And we are working day and night to make access to that treatment easier for providers around the country.

So we're looking at a whole range of options. Obviously, if other tools that the federal government has at its disposal are helpful, we will not be shy about invoking those tools. But right now, we are looking at these sets of factors to see how much more vaccine can we get in United States.

We're looking at the company that makes it. We're looking at their ability to produce more. We're talking to them about contract manufacturing in the United States and being able to produce more vaccines here, so we're looking at a whole range of options. Obviously, if other tools that the federal government has at its disposal are helpful, we will not be shy about invoking those tools. But right now, we are looking at these sets of factors to see how much more vaccine can we get in United States.

The FDA and The CDC clearly believe that people need two doses. And the reason that New York and many other places have been able to move forward with a first dose out to everybody, is because we've been able to show them that more doses are coming and that second doses will be able to be given to people, so given that, we encourage people to go ahead and use up all their doses as first doses.

We can prevent serious illness, we can keep people out of the hospital and especially out of the ICU, We can save lives, and we can minimize the disruptions caused by COVID-19. Even in the face of BA.5, the tools we have continue to work, we are at a point in the pandemic where most COVID-19 deaths are preventable.

Still worth getting Modernas Covid-19 vaccine, it really offers an extra level of protection, an extra layer of protection. What vaccines do is they keep kids out of the hospital, and that's why they are so effective and everybody deserves that protection.

We expect an FDA decision shortly after the advisory committee meeting, and we look forward to this process playing out, the FDA authorization is not the final step in the process before vaccinations can begin. CDC must also issue its recommendations. If the FDA authorizes the vaccines, the CDC will have its advisory committee meetings and ultimately the CDC director will make her recommendations.

It's not as contagious as Covid. So I am confident we're going to be able to keep our arms around it, but we'll track it very closely and use the tools we have to make sure we can continue to prevent further spread and take care of the people who get infected.

We've got to keep using that as the virus evolves and as the virus continues to do what it's doing.

We were hit with the BA.1 -- wave of infections in December, January. We saw BA.2. And now we're seeing, in a large chunk of the country, BA.2.12.1. They are more contagious with more immune escape, and they are driving a lot of the increases in infection that we're seeing across the nation right now.

We're looking at a range of models, both internal and external models, and what they're predicting is that if we don't get ahead of this thing, we're going to have a lot of waning immunity, this virus continues to evolve, and we may see a pretty sizable wave of infections, hospitalizations and deaths this fall and winter.

I thought that was a good decision, basically, because infection numbers are coming down, I think it's pretty reasonable to pull back on those mandates.

We're seeing two sets of things happening : A lot of vaccinated people getting infected. We're doing fine. Largely avoiding getting particularly sick, avoiding the hospital ; a lot of unvaccinated people and high-risk people who have not gotten boosted and they're really filling up the hospitals, and so our hospital systems are under a lot of stress.

I expect this surge to peak in the next couple of weeks. It'll peak in different places of America at different times, but once we get into February, I really do expect much, much lower case numbers.

I hope we fix it in January and February, but we're going to have to have a real effort to make sure there's plentiful, cheap, ubiquitous testing everywhere in the country, that's where we should be in this pandemic right now.

Getting people back out of isolation is really critical to keeping things going and also just creating an incentive for people to get tested so they don't have to be isolated for 10 days.

We have to be verythoughtful about travel bans, they feel like an easy thing todo.They don't work all that well.They have a real cost to them.

Kids need to get vaccinated because it's going to be good for them. It's going to protect them, obviously, it's also going to add population immunity to our broader population... It is going to be one more important step towards getting to the end of this pandemic.

There's so much more virus around, people who are infected have such high viral loads, but even short periods of time -- five minutes, seven minutes, you don't even have to be within six feet, for people who are unvaccinated, they are getting infected with much, much shorter exposure.