Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Officials

Table Of Content

• Secretary Buttigieg on Rebuilding Timeline: "Too Soon to Be Certain"
• Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials on President Biden’s Historic Actions to Mark Earth Day
• Presidential Remarks on U.S. Ports and Supply Chains
• Press Briefing by White House COVID-⁠19 Response Team and Public Health Officials
• Defense Department Briefing
• President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Washington Disaster Declaration

A reporter pressed further and asked if McMaster would leave "anytime soon." And we all need to keep front of mind that this is all taking place for one reason, and it is because the former President handpicked Supreme Court justices with the express purpose of overturning Roe v. Wade. That is what unleashed this pain all over the country. That is why one in three women in America live in a state with an abortion ban. Throughout the last six months, the President directed his team to continuously brief Speaker Johnson and other leaders on the urgent need for this supplemental.

Secretary Buttigieg on Rebuilding Timeline: "Too Soon to Be Certain"

If that’s the case, then we may not need to get boosted every six months or so. But if it does wane, which I hope it doesn’t, then we will address it. In addition to getting Americans their boosters, vaccination requirements are driving more and more people to get their first shot. And as we have done throughout our vaccination program, we have equity at the center of our work, ensuring boosters are available in the hardest-hit communities and by deploying mobile clinics to bring boosters to meet people where they are.

Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials on President Biden’s Historic Actions to Mark Earth Day

When Russia began amassing troops on Ukraine’s borders, the President rallied the world to respond to Russia’s aggression. He built a broad coalition that flowed critical aid to Ukraine as the Ukrainian people defended themselves and then won the battle for Kyiv, the battle for Kharkiv, the battle for Kherson, and regained half the territory that Russia occupied since 2022. Meanwhile, Putin’s friends keep giving him — are keeping him well supplied.

Department Press Briefing – April 18, 2024 - United States Department of State - Department of State

Department Press Briefing – April 18, 2024 - United States Department of State.

Posted: Thu, 18 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Presidential Remarks on U.S. Ports and Supply Chains

They know that these policies are making a difference. So — next slide — Dr. Walensky has mentioned to you that we have many unanswered questions and we are looking into them. And in real-time, at a matter of days to weeks, we’ll know more about transmission, immune evasion, and severity of disease.

Readout of President Biden’s Call with President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi of Egypt

Moderna, a couple of weeks ago, was able to accelerate delivery — at a fair price — of doses to the African Union. That’s something that we helped facilitate, including by giving the AU — African Union — our place in line. We have plenty of doses of Moderna for boosters and primary series here in the U.S.  So we’re able to do that to facilitate Moderna getting more doses to the African Union. Seventy-one percent of adults are now fully vaccinated, up from less than one percent when the President took office. Thirty-six million Americans have already gotten the enhanced protection of a booster. And 95 percent of Americans, including kids as young as five, are now eligible for the protection of a vaccine.

Press Briefing by White House COVID-⁠19 Response Team and Public Health Officials

We’ll provide more details as part of the announcement on what’s happening in the 60 different geographies that will be funded here. But the — the kind of through line for all of them will be solar projects that deliver the benefits of clean energy to households. So, we’ve, I think, taken it — taken climate on with the sense of urgency and the — and the recognition of the stakes.

Defense Department Briefing

And I think the President continues to direct his team to look at all tools, all authorities that will help us move forward on this objective, both of tackling the crisis and of unlocking the economic opportunity that comes with it. Just to give you an example of how we’ve turned the tide on that, look at the President invoking the Defense Production Act, an emergency authority to jump-start our solar manufacturing capacity in the U.S.  Now we’re on track to increase that capacity eightfold. Delmira Jennings and her husband, John, live in Athens, Georgia. With the help of selected applicant Capital Good Fund’s Georgia BRIGHT leasing program, they were able to install a 13-kilowatt solar and 10-kilowatt-hour battery system in their home last February, which provided them with backup power for two days after a major storm last year. The 60 selected applicants include 49 state-level awards totaling approximately $5.5 billion.

The Solar for All program, which Deputy Administrator McCabe will speak to, is really, I think, emblematic of this swing-for-the-fences, big, bold climate action that the President has championed from day one. Not just solar for some folks, but really making sure that we’re opening up a market where everybody, no matter their zip code or their economic background, can tap into the savings opportunity that clean energy represents. One of the things we now know, and it’s becoming increasingly apparent, that when you get a high level of antibody — and as shown in this slide in an animal model, done by Drs. Seder and Corbett here at the NIH — when you look at the third dose, you increase the levels of neutralizing antibodies against all the variants. In making these recommendations, we took into consideration the current state of the pandemic, the data on vaccine effectiveness over time, and importantly the safety profile of booster shots of over 30 million Americans who have already received an additional vaccine dose.

While the actions of the FDA and CDC represent an important step forward in our vaccination program, we are not losing sight of the goal to vaccinate all who are eligible with their primary vaccine series. Forty-seven million eligible American adults and more than twelve million teens are still not fully vaccinated and remain at highest risk of disease. We’re not saying we do not want TikTok to exist.

Protests over Israel's war in Gaza continued Friday on major college campuses across the U.S. And so, finally, our booster vaccine regimens work against Omicron. At this point, there is no need for a variant-specific booster.

We’re not saying that we do not want Americans to use TikTok. We want to make sure that it’s done in a way that we protect our national security and that we protect Americans. Because it would have been the toughest, it would have been the fairest if it was — if the President had an opportunity to sign that into law — you know, law that we had seen in some time. And it would have addressed a lot of the concerns that Republicans have that we’re seeing — the challenges that we’re seeing at the border. And then, third, the United States is building up our capacity to support Ukraine. For example, we’re investing in our own domestic production of 155-millimeter artillery rounds.

As of today, President Biden has conserved more than 41 million acres of lands and waters in just over three years. And he is on track to conserve more lands and waters than any president in history. So, the four pardon recipients participating in the discussion are among the 16 individuals who received clemency from the President just yesterday.

As is shown here, this is not looking at booster, it’s looking at the effectiveness of a two-dose Pfizer vaccine against the Omicron variant. As people might recall, last week, we put out a request for information about expanding manufacturing capacity by another billion doses in the U.S., both to fight this pandemic and future pandemics. The message today, I think, is quite obvious, and that’s that vaccination requirements work. And they boost — they boost dramatically vaccination rates. We’re now up to 35,000 sites, so that continues to increase.

He wants to protect Americans from coun- — a country, in this — in this instance, that wants to potentially do us harm. You all — you all listened to the President, right? So, he had an opportunity this morning, so he was going to take that opportunity to say how we need to continue to move forward with the border — border — border security negotiation — or the plan that came out of the negotiation.

Scenes of mass graves in general are deeply concerning. But I don’t have anything that I, you know, can confirm the veracity of those — of those reports. Q    Admiral, do you have anything to confirm about whether the President met with AOC yesterday about Gaza?