Americans who got the updated COVID-19 booster shots are better protected against symptomatic infection than those who haven't — at least for now, U.S. health officials said Tuesday.

Updated boosters rolled out by Pfizer and rival Moderna in September have been a hard sell for vaccine-weary Americans. Only about 13% of U.S. adults so far have gotten a "bivalent" shot that targets the omicron strain and the original coronavirus. On Tuesday, White House officials announced a renewed push for more Americans to get the latest shots.

The first look at the new shots' real-world effectiveness shows they work, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert.

Speaking at a White House briefing expected to be his last before he retires from the government at the end of year, Fauci said what "may be the final message I give you from this podium is that please, for your own safety, for that of your family, get your updated COVID-19 shot as soon as you're eligible."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed about 360,000 COVID-19 tests given to people with coronavirus-like symptoms at drugstores around the country between September, when the new boosters rolled out, and early November. Researchers compared the vaccination status of those who wound up having COVID-19 with those who didn't.

The new omicron-targeting booster added 30% to 56% protection against symptomatic infection, depending on how many prior vaccinations someone had, how long ago and their age, the CDC concluded.

People getting the greatest benefit are those who'd never had a prior booster, just two doses of the original COVID-19 vaccine at least eight months earlier, said CDC's Dr. Ruth Link-Gelles, who led the study.

But even people who got a summertime booster of the original vaccine before seeking the new fall formula were 30% to 40% more protected than if they'd skipped this latest shot, she said.

"We think about it as the additional benefit or incremental benefit of getting one more dose, and in this case that one more dose is a bivalent," Link-Gelles said.

The updated boosters target the BA.5 omicron strain that until recently was the most common type, an effort to build on the original COVID-19 vaccines' protection as the virus continues to mutate.

The original shots have offered strong protection against severe disease and death no matter the variant, but protection against mild infection wanes. CDC's analysis tracked only the first few months of the new boosters' use so it's too early to know how long added protection against symptomatic infection lasts.

But "certainly as we enter the holiday season, personally I would want the most possible protection if I'm seeing my parents and grandparents," Link-Gelles said. "Protection against infection there is going to be really helpful, because you potentially would stop yourself from getting a grandparent or other loved one sick."

Even protection against severe illness slipped some when BA.5 surged, the reason health authorities have strongly urged older adults and others at high risk not to skip the new booster.

To that end, the Biden administration announced a six-week campaign urging people — especially seniors — to get the boosters, saying the shots could save lives as Americans gather for the holidays.

The campaign echoes a call earlier this week from the American Medical Association and nearly a dozen other health groups for people to hurry up and get both the COVID-19 booster and their yearly flu vaccination. The flu has hit unusually strong and early this year. Combined with COVID-19 cases and other problematic respiratory viruses, hospitals and doctors' offices are packed.

Some people may be reluctant to get vaccinated or boosted because of a torrent of misinformation about the shots despite evidence that they're safe and have saved millions of lives.

"You can decide to trust America's physicians or you can trust some random dude on Twitter," said Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 coordinator.

Fauci said "as a physician it pains me" that the country's harsh political division has some people refusing vaccination for non-health reasons.

And he noted that while it's important to for people to get the new booster, those most at risk if there's another winter surge will be people who never got the primary vaccine series.

Adding to the uncertainty, relatives of BA.5 are now the most common coronavirus subtypes. Lab testing from Pfizer and Moderna show the updated booster revs up people's levels of virus-fighting antibodies, particularly against BA.5. The companies point to preliminary antibody evidence that the new shots also may offer at least some protection against the even newer omicron subtypes, despite not being an exact match.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

While the CDC has eased its mask-wearing requirements, there are still more than 470 counties across the country where masks are recommended, due to high COVID-19 case numbers.

That’s according to the latest data from the CDC.

Experts tell CNN that many places that have high COVID-19 levels have low vaccination rates, limited access to health resources or may still be dealing with the contagious omicron variant.

Some of those counties never had mask mandates in place or lifted mask mandates early in the pandemic.

The CDC recommends people wear masks indoors if they live in counties with high levels of COVID-19.

Severity levels are determined by the number of new COVID-19 hospital admissions and inpatient beds occupied.

About 7% of the population in the U.S. lives in an area with high COVID-19 numbers, which is a decrease from last week.

So who is the highest-paid person in the government? The answer may surprise you.

Here's a hint: It's not President Joe Biden, who reportedly makes $400,000 a year as Commander in Chief.

Mark Scribner, Managing Director at Oxygen Financial, tells Newsy that this person is Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Lindsay Tuchman: "So, why does Dr. Fauci make more money than the President of the United States?" 

Mark Scribner: "So, his package, it's about $440,000 a year, and then he has a lifetime pension of $380,000 a year. He is part of an old federal system, I think there's only a handful of people still left. It's called the CSRS system, and it was disbanded in 1987. So, he's part of an old package that was not very effective for pensions, that was costing the government way too much money, so they stopped it, but he's still on that program."

Tuchman: "So, and in part has to do with just his longevity of serving in the position that he's in?"

 

Scribner: "You know, I'm a financial advisor, I have clients that work for the FBI, ATF, and they've had the same tenure in terms of length of service. They don't have those kinds of packages, they are, you know, maybe $80,000 a year in pensions, they have a million dollars in their retirement accounts, Dr. Fauci has about $10.4 million in his investment accounts, so there's definitely a disparity." 

Tuchman: "Interesting. So, as we're talking about government employees making money, there's the salary of course, but we've also seen politicians on both sides of the aisle profiting off of the stock market, and sometimes it's due to some information that they have, or something that they know about, and that of course, faces a lot of criticism. What are your thoughts on making sure that doesn't happen in any, sort of way that could be seen as something to be criticized?" 

Scribner: "Well, for your viewers, there's a great website called Unusual Whales and it goes through each politician and it's not a, it's not a red or blue type of a topic, it's all across the board, but they are definitely having access to inside information. Now, I'm a financial advisor and there's a term called 'front running,' that basically prohibits us from buying an individual stock for our own accounts ahead of a client account, but they have access to trade deals, all kinds of big announcements and they buy individual stocks, and this was something that was attempted to be resolved, and it's called the Stock Act. It got watered down in 2013, but they are buying ahead of, you know, some major announcements, major trade deals, and it actually ruins the integrity of the market when you know, they have access to inside information that the average person can't. It's completely unacceptable and I think it just erodes trust for the consumers."

This report was originally published by Lindsay Tuchman of Newsy.

WASHINGTON —

As the COVID-19 omicron variant surges across the United States, top federal health officials are looking to add a negative test along with its five-day isolation restrictions for asymptomatic Americans who catch the coronavirus, the White House’s top medical adviser said Sunday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now considering including the negative test as part of its guidance after getting significant “pushback” on its updated recommendations last week.

Under that Dec. 27 guidance, isolation restrictions for people infected with COVID-19 were shortened from 10 days to five days if they are no longer feeling symptoms or running a fever. After that period, they are asked to spend the following five days wearing a mask when around others.

The guidelines have since received criticism from many health professionals for not specifying a negative antigen test as a requirement for leaving isolation.

“There has been some concern about why we don’t ask people at that five-day period to get tested,” Fauci said. “Looking at it again, there may be an option in that, that testing could be a part of that, and I think we’re going to be hearing more about that in the next day or so from the CDC.”

Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said the U.S. has been seeing almost a “vertical increase” of new cases, now averaging 400,000 cases a day, with hospitalizations also up.

“We are definitely in the middle of a very severe surge and uptick in cases,” he said. “The acceleration of cases that we’ve seen is really unprecedented, gone well beyond anything we’ve seen before.”

Fauci said he’s concerned that the omicron variant is overwhelming the health care system and causing a “major disruption” on other essential services.

“When I say major disruptions, you’re certainly going to see stresses on the system and the system being people with any kind of jobs ... particularly with critical jobs to keep society functioning normally,” Fauci said. “We already know that there are reports from fire departments, from police departments in different cities that 10, 20, 25 and sometimes 30% of the people are ill. That’s something that we need to be concerned about, because we want to make sure that we don’t have such an impact on society that there really is a disruption. I hope that doesn’t happen.”

The surging variant is ravaging other sectors of the workforce and American life.

Wintry weather combined with the pandemic were blamed for Sunday's grounding of more than 2,500 U.S. flights and more than 4,100 worldwide. Dozens of U.S. colleges are moving classes online again for at least the first week or so of the semester — and some warn it could stretch longer if the wave of infection doesn’t subside soon. Many companies that had been allowing office workers to work remotely but that were planning to return to the office early in 2022 have further delayed those plans.

The White House Correspondents' Association announced on Sunday that the number of journalists allowed in the briefing room for at least the first few weeks of the year would be scaled back because of concerns about the fast-spreading virus. Typically 49 reporters have seats for the daily briefing, but only 14 reporters will be seated under the restrictions. The White House limited capacity in the briefing room early in the pandemic but returned to full capacity in June 2021.

While there is “accumulating evidence” that omicron might lead to less severe illness, he cautioned that the data remains early. Fauci said he worries in particular about the tens of millions of unvaccinated Americans because “a fair number of them are going to get severe disease."

He urged Americans who have not yet gotten vaccinated and boosted to do so and to mask up indoors to protect themselves and blunt the current surge of U.S. cases.

The Food and Drug Administration last week said preliminary research indicates at-home rapid tests detect omicron, but may have reduced sensitivity. The agency noted it’s still studying how the tests perform with the variant, which was first detected in late November.

Fauci said Americans “should not get the impression that those tests are not valuable.”

“I think the confusion is that rapid antigen tests have never been as sensitive as the PCR test,” Fauci said. “They’re very good when they are given sequentially. So if you do them like maybe two or three times over a few-day period, at the end of the day, they are as good as the PCR. But as a single test, they are not as sensitive.”

A PCR test usually needs to be processed in a laboratory. The test looks for the virus’s genetic material and then reproduces it millions of times until it’s detectable with a computer.

Fauci said if Americans take the necessary precautions, the U.S. might see some semblance of more normal life returning soon.

“One of the things that we hope for is that this thing will peak after a period of a few weeks and turn around," Fauci said. He expressed hope that by February or March, omicron could fall to a low enough level “that it doesn’t disrupt our society, our economy, our way of life.”

Fauci spoke on ABC's “This Week” and CNN's “State of the Union.”

Madhani reported from Wilmington, Delaware.

White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that more and more data indicate that the omicron variant of COVID-19 may not cause as many severe infections as past strains. However, he warned hospital systems in some parts of the country could still get overrun because the strain spreads so quickly.

During Wednesday's briefing by the White House COVID-19 response team, Fauci shared with reporters data recorded by South Africa and the United Kingdom, both of which showed that omicron resulted in a smaller percentage of severe COVID-19 infections.

He also noted that recent data shows that the U.S. case rate is climbing much higher than the current hospitalization rates.

"The spike in cases is out of proportion to the increase in hospitalization. So if one looks at 14-day averages, the data, as of last night, indicate a plus-126% increase in cases and an 11% increase in hospitalizations," Fauci said. "We must remember that hospitalizations and deaths are lagging indicators. However, that pattern in the disparity between cases and hospitalizations strongly suggests that there will be a lower hospitalization-to-case ratio when the situation becomes more clear."

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the U.S. smashed the all-time recorded for daily COVID-19 cases, with nearly 450,000. However, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky noted Wednesday that hospitalizations and deaths have remained fairly steady in the past seven days.

"All indications point to having a less severity of omicron versus delta," Fauci said.

However, Fauci warned that because omicron is so transmissible, it could still lead to hospitals becoming overwhelmed in the weeks ahead.

"Increased transmissibility of omicron resulting in an extremely high volume of cases may override some of the impact of the lower disease severity," Fauci said. "And so we should not become complacent, since our hospital system could still be stressed in certain areas of the country."

Fauci added that the U.S.'s best protection against omicron is vaccines, as "the risk of severe disease in any circulating variant, including omicron, is much, much higher for the unvaccinated." He and other top health officials recommend everyone in the U.S. get vaccinated and a booster shot when they are eligible to get one.

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday said he thought the U.S. should consider instituting a mandate that would require domestic air travelers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Fauci — a White House medical adviser — declined to say whether he had briefed President Joe Biden on such a policy. However, he did say a vaccine requirement to board domestic flights is "reasonable to consider."

"There's requirements whether you want to get into college or a university, if you want to work in certain places, and if you make vaccinations a requirement that's another incentive to get more people vaccinated," Fauci said. "If you want to do that with domestic flights, I think that's something that should be considered."

Fauci's comments come as hundreds of flights across the country were delayed or canceled as airlines experienced worker shortages amid COVID-19 outbreaks.

The current spike in COVID-19 cases is largely being driven by the omicron variant — a highly contagious strain that now represents at least 73% of all new cases across the U.S.

"We're in a tough situation with omicron. It's not something to be taken lightly," Fauci said.

Fauci noted that data from South Africa — one of the first countries to experience an omicron surge — indicate that the new strain may not cause as serious cases of COVID-19 as other strains.

While it's unclear how the virus will behave in the U.S., Fauci noted that officials are considering lowering the time of isolation from a COVID-19 diagnosis from 10 days to seven days to prevent further worker shortages in essential industries.

"Certainly, with the health care workers, we're going to be doing it," Fauci said, noting that the administration will consider lowering the isolation period for workers in other industries deemed "essential."

In September, Fauci told theSkimm Podcast that he would support a vaccine mandate for air travel.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. saw its second-highest day of new infections last week, with nearly 300,000 new cases on Monday alone. The current seven-day average of new cases is about 175,000 a day, up from about 118,000 on Dec. 14. During that same period, deaths have remained fairly stagnant, rising from an average of 1,100 per day to 1,200 per day.

While the omicron variant appears to be more resistant to COVID-19 vaccines, Dr. Anthony Fauci stressed Wednesday that the vaccines still offer substantial protection against the newly-discovered variant.

Fauci also urged Americans not to wait for omicron-specific shots and seek out vaccinations — whether first-time shots or booster shots — as soon as possible.

"Our booster vaccine regimens work against omicron," Fauci said Wednesday during a White House COVID-19 response team briefing. "At this point, there is no need for a variant-specific booster. And so the message remains clear. If you're unvaccinated, get vaccinated. And particularly in the arena of omicron, if you're fully vaccinated, get your booster shot."

Fauci, a top medical adviser for President Joe Biden, says Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine and a booster shot is 75% effective against omicron. That's significantly lower than the vaccine's effectiveness against other variants, though it still offers significant protection against severe infection.

Pfizer's CEO recently said his company would be able to develop a vaccine within 100 days that's made specifically to fight the omicron variant.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, added Wednesday that COVID-19 infections and deaths are on the rise across the country. She noted that the omicron variant represented about 3% of new cases in the U.S. That number is expected to increase in the weeks ahead.

If you and your family members are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, it's OK for you to ditch the masks this holiday season when you're around each other, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN Sunday."That's what I'm going to do with my family," Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union."However, the nation's top infectious disease expert also noted if you are traveling or are unaware of the vaccination status of the people around you, then you should wear a mask in those situations."Get vaccinated and you can enjoy the holidays very easily. And if you're not, please be careful," Fauci said. "Get tested if you need to get tested when you're getting together, but that's not a substitute for getting vaccinated. Get yourself vaccinated and you can continue to enjoy interactions with your family and others."Fauci's comments come as the U.S. faces the second holiday season of the pandemic, but the first with safe and effective vaccines now available to people ages 5 and older. Still, a significant part of the eligible population remains unvaccinated.According to data published Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 196 million people, or 59% of the total U.S. population is fully vaccinated. But about 26.6% of the eligible population, or 83 million people, have yet to receive a first dose.The vast majority of COVID-19 deaths so far this year have been among unvaccinated people, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Sunday."More than a thousand people dying every day -- the vast majority of them unvaccinated. Those are preventable deaths, probably at least 100,000 of the deaths that have happened this year didn't need to," Collins said.The seven-day average of vaccinations has increased -- about 36% compared to last week -- due in large part to vaccinations among newly eligible children.

Playing the upcoming NFL season could pose a number of logistical challenges, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease, told Peter King of

NBC Sports on Sunday.

In a 20-minute interview, Dr. Fauci said it’s possible for teams to play in empty stadiums this fall. He even said it’s possible some games could be played in stadiums in front of a reduced number of fans, but there will be a number of hurdles the NFL would need to clear in order to hold contests. One of which involves what to do if a member of a team’s 53-man roster becomes infected with COVID-19.

One key Dr. Fauci discussed was testing players. He said if one member of a team tests positive, it is possible the incident is isolated, but what happens if two or more players gets infected?

“If you have one outlier [only one player testing positive], I think you might get away,” Dr. Fauci told King. “But once you wind up having a situation where it looks like it’s spread within a team, you got a real problem. You gotta shut it down.”

Dr. Fauci pointed out that football’s physical nature makes players susceptible for catching the virus.

“This is a respiratory virus, so it’s going to be spread by shedding virus,” Dr. Fauci said. “The problem with virus shedding is that if I have it in my nasal pharynx, and it sheds and I wipe my hand against my nose—now it’s on my hand.

"You see, then I touch my chest or my thigh, then it’s on my chest or my thigh for at least a few hours. Sweat as such won’t transmit it. But if people are in such close contact as football players are on every single play, then that’s the perfect set up for spreading. I would think that if there is an infected football player on the field—a middle linebacker, a tackle, whoever it is it—as soon as they hit the next guy, the chances are that they will be shedding virus all over that person.”

Dr. Fauci said that frequent testing of players and staff will be a key determination on whether a season could be played.

“If I test today, and I’m negative, you don’t know if I got exposed tomorrow... There’s no guarantee that you’re going to get exposed and be positive the next day,” Dr. Fauci said. “To give you an example, you’re probably reading in the newspapers that there’s an infection in the White House.

“I was exposed to that person. So I immediately got tested. I am negative. So, I’m negative yesterday. I don’t know if I’m going to be negative Monday. Understand? It’s almost an impossible situation. To be 100 percent sure, you’ve got to test every day. But that’s not practical and that’s never going to happen. But you can diminish dramatically by testing everybody Saturday night, Sunday morning, and say OK, only negative players play.”

While the NFL season is scheduled to begin in September, MLB is preparing for its return. On Monday, owners reportedly voted on a plan to begin the 2020 season around July 4. The plan would call for teams to play in home stadiums where possible without fans.

The rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are improving; an optimistic sign for the future of the pandemic. But with so many Americans still unvaccinated, the numbers could still go back up, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Fox News Sunday.

"If we don't do very well in that regard, there's always the danger that there will be enough circulating virus that you can have a stalling of the diminishing of the number of cases and when that happens, as we've seen in the past with other waves that we've been through, there's the danger of resurgence," said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.

Although cases still remain high at an average of more than 85,000 infections a day, they are down by more than 8,000 from the weeks before, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And deaths are down an average of more than 200 a day from the start of the month.

Progress in the numbers is still threatened, however, by the low rates of vaccination. As of Sunday, 57% of the total population was fully vaccinated against the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And though health experts do not know exactly what proportion of the population needs to be protected to control the spread of the virus, Fauci has said a vast majority will need to be vaccinated.

The good news is, Fauci does not think another spike in cases is inevitable.

"It's going to be within our capability to prevent that from happening," said Fauci. "The degree to which we continue to come down in that slope will depend on how well we do about getting more people vaccinated."

Johnson & Johnson boosters

As more COVID-19 boosters are potentially set to become available, experts say those who received the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine are "awfully well protected," but should still get another shot for maximum safety.

"The Johnson & Johnson vaccine turns out not to be quite as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna. And people who got (the J&J vaccine) way back at the beginning of this year therefore have been somewhat less protected, although they're still awfully well protected," said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.

Collins' remarks come after a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended all adults who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot should get a second dose at least two months after their first dose.

The FDA will consider the committee's advice. Then the CDC's vaccine advisers will be asked to consider it.

Experts are advising people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should get a booster shot as soon as it is available because it will provide them with the best protection against COVID-19, especially as the more transmissible delta variant continues to be the dominant strain in the United States. But they are also reinforcing the point the vaccine remains highly effective against the worst consequences of the virus.

Johnson & Johnson has indicated its vaccine immunity has waned -- but not by much. Still, the company said studies show a booster dose increases protection equivalent to the 94% efficacy shown by the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines soon after they were first given in clinical trials last year.

Meanwhile, various real-world studies suggest Johnson & Johnson's vaccine was anywhere between 50% and 68% effective, Dr. Amanda Cohn with the CDC said Friday.

"If the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna had not been so utterly, amazingly effective, 95%, then Johnson & Johnson would look like a hero with their one dose, but I guess our standards are being set awfully high here by the other vaccines," Collins told CNN.

But a study published Thursday reported a steep decline in vaccine effectiveness against infection by August of this year, especially for people who received the J&J vaccine.

Researchers found among more than 600,000 veterans, J&J's vaccine's protection against infection fell from 88% in March to 3% in August. Meanwhile, Moderna's vaccine protection against infection fell to 64% from 92%, and Pfizer's declined to 50% from 91% during the same time period.

"The performance of these vaccines against severe disease, keeping people out of the hospital, is distinctly better than that, and that's the main thing we're interested in," said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

The FDA vaccine advisory committee also supported emergency use authorization for booster shots of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine after six months, but not for everyone. Moderna recipients over the age of 65 and adults with conditions that put them at risk for severe disease or who work or live in a place which puts them at higher risk of complications or severe illness may be eligible for the 50-microgram booster, which is half the size of the primary two-dose series.

And as for whether booster shots will become available for everyone who's already vaccinated, health officials are still working to determine that.

"I think as more data come in and ... are carefully reviewed and vetted, then I think the expansion of the recommendations may be in order. Not quite yet," Schaffner said.

Minnesota Emergency and Urgent Care services suspended over nurses strike

In many places, the brunt of the hospital strain from COVID-19 has fallen on nurses, and a strike in Minnesota has impacted services.

Emergency and Urgent Care services have been temporarily suspended at Abbott Northwestern WestHealth in Plymouth, Minnesota due to about 50 nurses from the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) choosing to strike, according to a statement from Allina Health.

The nurses are striking to seek "a contract that provides fair pay and benefits to nurses on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic," the MNA said in a statement on Thursday.

"MNA nurses have been negotiating a new contract for months, but Allina has refused to agree to fair pay for holiday work or adequate benefits," the MNA said in the statement. "Compensating nurses fairly for holiday work is especially critical because understaffing by Allina and other hospital systems has required nurses to work more days and longer hours, including overtime and holidays, as they continue on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic."

The closure began Sunday morning and will last until 7:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday, according to the statement.

"Allina Health and Abbott Northwestern WestHealth have negotiated 7 times with MNA. A contract settlement was previously reached and unanimously recommended by the union's bargaining team. Unfortunately, the MNA could not finalize that agreement," Allina Health's statement says. "Throughout negotiations, we have consistently offered proposals that demonstrate our commitment to our employees, including an immediate wage increase to align wages with other metro hospitals and agreeing to some of the union's other priority issues."

Black people represent a larger share of new vaccinations

As public health officials talk boosters, 66 million Americans who are eligible for a vaccine still haven't received their initial shots, while nearly 57% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

Black and brown communities have proven to be disproportionally bearing the brunt of the pandemic for various reasons, including health care inequities.

But there is some good news in terms of Black people's vaccination numbers. Recently, Black people -- who comprise 12.4% of the total U.S. population -- have come to represent a slightly larger share of new vaccinations than in the past, according to the CDC.

Since vaccinations began, Black people in the U.S. have accounted for 10.6% of all people with at least one dose. But in the past two weeks, they have accounted for 11.4% of new vaccinations.

The growth in vaccinations comes after two studies published by the CDC in April showed racial and ethnic minority groups had higher rates of hospitalization for COVID-19 and sought emergency department care for COVID-19 more when compared to White people.

Another analysis published earlier this month by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) showed the difference in COVID-19 cases and deaths between Black, Hispanic and White people is narrowing.

KFF researchers found while disparities are still present across different racial groups, the gap is improving for Black and Hispanic people, based on an analysis of case and death data from CDC last month. But COVID-19 infections remain high in Native American and Alaska Native people.

Some in law enforcement are resisting vaccine, but COVID-19 is killing more of them than gunfire

Meanwhile, COVID-19 has become the leading cause of death for officers, despite law enforcement being among the first groups eligible to receive the vaccine at the end of 2020.

As of Saturday, the total stood at 476 COVID-19 related deaths since the start of the pandemic, compared to 94 from gunfire in the same period.

Still, law enforcement officers and their unions across the country have resisted vaccine mandates, despite the delta variant-fueled resurgence of COVID-19 and effectiveness of the shots in preventing severe cases and death.

Reasons cited for the vaccine resistance among law enforcement officers range from disinformation to distrust in the science of the vaccines.

In Chicago, the head of the police union asked officers not to follow the mayor's order to submit COVID-19 vaccination proof by the Friday deadline.

John Catanzara, the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police president, urged, in a video message posted on YouTube, for officers to stand their ground against the mandate.

"I am telling you right now. It is an improper order. It is illegal ... Refuse that order," Catanzara said in the video.

The city filed a complaint alleging the union was "encouraging a work stoppage or strike." A Cook County Circuit judge ruled Friday night Catanzara should not make public statements encouraging members to not comply with the vaccination policy.

Catanzara "has never engaged in, supported, or encouraged a work stoppage," according to a union statement on Friday.

Lightfoot said the city would take the weekend to check with officers who have not complied with the mandate. She said officers should report for duty until they are told by supervisors they have been placed on leave.

If states are able to "diligently vaccinate" people against the coronavirus next year, the U.S. could return to normal life by early fall, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday in an interview with California Gov. Gavin Newsom.Although the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is off to a much slower start than expected, if the U.S. is able to catch up, widespread vaccination could be possible beginning in April, said Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Government officials had initially promised at least 20 million vaccine doses would be administered by the end of December, but as the year comes to a close, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows about 12.4 million doses have been distributed and nearly 2.8 million have been administered."Let's say in April, it will be what I call open season, namely, anybody who wants to get vaccinated can get vaccinated," Fauci said in the Facebook interview. "If we then diligently vaccinate people in April, May, June, July, then we will gradually and noticeably get a degree of protection approaching herd immunity."Fauci has estimated that herd immunity — where enough people have antibodies to diminish the spread of the virus — could likely be achieved if about 70% to 85% of the population gets vaccinated."By the time we get to the early fall, we will have enough good herd immunity to be able to really get back to some strong semblance of normality — schools, theaters, sports events, restaurants," he said. "I believe if we do it correctly, we will be there by the early fall."Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said vaccinations will have to increase to more than 1 million per day.It's doable, he said, but, "Do we have the health system to do that? I'm not certain."He said the federal government needs to step up and states need to get funding for the administering of the vaccines.Trump administration officials told CNN that vaccine distribution is on track and claimed the gap was due to a lag in reporting data. Still, Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed, acknowledged the number is "lower than what we hoped for.""We know that it should be better, and we're working hard to make it better," Slaoui said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci debunked a controversial comment made by rapper Nicki Minaj on social media about the COVID-19 vaccine.

On Monday, the rapper made claims on Twitter that her cousin's friend got vaccinated against the coronavirus and has now become impotent.

"My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent," Minaj tweeted. "His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married. Now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied."

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday, Dr. Fauci said that claim is false.

“There’s no evidence that it happens, nor is there any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen," Fauci said. "So the answer to your question is no.”

According to its website, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there's "currently no evidence that any vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems in women or men."

The national rates of hospitalizations, positive coronavirus tests and deaths have appeared to plateau or drop in the first few weeks of 2021. The CDC urges caution in reading too much into the declines and suggests those numbers could change.

“Recent declines in all indicators should be interpreted with caution as reporting delays increased due to the holidays and a rise in the number of COVID-19 illnesses. Downward trends may change as more data are received,” the CDC states in their weekly COVIDView summary report.

The CDC’s report looks at the week ending January 16, the most recent week of nationwide data they have analyzed. They say all surveillance indicators they are tracking “remain elevated but decreased during the week."

Indicators include hospitalizations and deaths caused by the coronavirus, and the positivity rate of those tested for the virus. The positivity rate of COVID-19 tests for mid-January was at 11.9%, compared to 14.7% in the first week of the year.

“The holidays … and increases in the number of COVID-19 illnesses have affected data reporting and health care seeking behavior in multiple ways; therefore, data from recent weeks should be interpreted with caution because they may change more than usual as additional data for those weeks are received,” the report states.

Dr. Anthony Fauci at a COVID-19 briefing Thursday at the White House echoed the same sentiments.

“There are always lags (in the data) so be aware of that. That when you have cases and then a couple weeks later you see it represented in hospitalizations, intensive care and then a couple weeks later in deaths,” Fauci said.

The CDC’s reporting relies on local and regional reporting from hospital systems and states.

Hospital systems across the country are reporting few or no ICU beds available after surges in coronavirus patients in late November and December, in addition to resource shortages and overworked hospital and clinic staff.

Related video above: Oklahoma City taking part in COVID-19 vaccine trial for children

The government's top infectious disease expert said Friday he hopes to see some kids starting to get vaccinated for COVID-19 in the next few months. It's a needed step to securing widespread immunity to the virus.

Vaccines are not yet approved for children, but testing already is underway for those as young as 12.

If those trials are successful, Dr. Anthony Fauci said they would be followed by another round of testing down to those 9 years old.

“Hopefully by the time we get to the late spring and early summer we will have children being able to be vaccinated,” Fauci said at a White House coronavirus briefing.

Fauci was looking ahead to a time vaccines will be plentiful. Even older adults are having difficulty getting shots at the moment. As of Thursday, only about 1.3% of Americans had been fully vaccinated with the required two doses of the currently available vaccines.

Children represent about one-fourth of the population, and for the U.S. to reach “herd immunity," or widespread resistance, about 70% to 85% of the population must be vaccinated.

“Children tend to not become as severely ill as adults but they can still become ill and some have tragically died,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a public health expert and emergency room physician, who supports Fauci's goal. “Children can also be vectors of transmission, and getting children vaccinated is important as we strive for herd immunity.”

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has emergency approval for use in people 16 and older. Moderna's vaccine is for those 18 and older.

Pfizer's clinical trial for children 12 to 15 is fully enrolled, and the drugmaker could seek emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for children 12 and up sometime in the first half of this year. Moderna’s trial for ages 12-17 is still recruiting.

Since the initial tests to validate the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines involved tens of thousands of people, the age-related testing on children can be done using smaller groups.

“You don’t want to have to ... go through an efficacy trial, where you’re involving tens of thousands of children," Fauci explained. “What you can do, is in a much smaller trial, measured in hundreds to a couple of thousands ... what we call safety and ... immunogenicity.” That's a term for whether the vaccine successfully triggers an immune system response.

After a frustratingly slow start, the U.S. is now administering about 1 million shots a day to adults, although that pace is still seen as insufficient. President Joe Biden has talked about 1.5 million shots a day, if it can be done. His administration has set a goal of 100 million shots in its first 100 days.

Two more vaccines from American companies are nearing the stage where the FDA can evaluate them for approval. One from Johnson & Johnson requires only a single shot.

Biden has also set a goal of reopening most schools by the summer, and directed government agencies to work with communities to advance it.

His American Rescue Plan legislation in Congress calls for $50 billion to finance a major expansion of testing, which is seen as necessary for the safe reopening of schools and businesses. That's because robust testing can detect early outbreaks before they spread through a community and trigger shutdowns. Testing in the U.S. had a chaotic start, and experts say in many parts of the country it's still subpar.

If there ever was a year to get a flu shot, this one may be it.

Typically, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests people get a flu shot by the end of October.

But the coming flu season may be a bad one. With COVID-19 still complicating things, the experts say you may want to do it even earlier.

"Years ago, we would say you should wait as long as you can to get a shot, but if you get it in the fall, that really should cover you through the season," said Dr. Claudia Hoyen, director of pediatric infection control at UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland. "If people get the chance to go ahead and get their flu shot, whenever they can do it is probably good."

Based on the number of viruses she's seen hitting people early this year, she thinks it doesn't bode well for the flu season. Hoyen's children's hospital has been busier this summer compared to last, treating children for a bigger mix of viruses.

"Once we all took our masks off, the viruses did what they do best and found lots of people to give runny noses to," Hoyen said.

What the flu season will look like this year

The U.S. isn't seeing a lot of influenza yet, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but that could soon change.

To predict what kind of flu numbers the U.S. should expect, experts often look to the Southern hemisphere, where flu season usually starts in June and peaks in August.

"The story is mixed so far," said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Australia, with its tight pandemic restrictions on travelers coming into the country, has had very low flu activity, Schaffner said.

"But China, which has more interactions with the outer world, has had a moderate flu season," Schaffner said.

"So we think we'll have at least a moderate season this year."

Children the 'distribution franchise' for flu

Typically what kicks off the flu season is the start of the school year. With more kids going back to the classroom than last year, unless kids are wearing masks, and everyone else for that matter, there will likely be more cases, he said.

"Children are the 'distribution franchise' for the influenza virus. They're on top of each other and they are not the most hygienic little lovelies, so they spread the flu virus amongst themselves," Schaffner said.

"When kids get infected, they shed the virus for a longer period of time than adults do, so they're really the people who bring the virus into the family and spread it about to the neighbors and, well, everybody," Schaffner said.

Flu by the numbers

In an average season, the U.S. sees between 9 and 45 million cases of the flu each year, according to the CDC.

Last year was no average season. Flu was practically non-existent in the U.S. with only a few thousand cases for the entire year. One child died. For comparison, in 2019-2020, there were 199 flu-related deaths in children and 144 the season before that.

The "twindemic" with a high number of flu and COVID-19 cases that some experts predicted for 2020 thankfully never happened.

What's different this year

What may have helped are the extra precautions people took to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Masks, good hand hygiene, limited in-person school, restricted travel and less interaction with others can help prevent COVID-19 and the spread of the flu.

As the country has opened back up, protection from a flu shot therefore becomes even more essential for just about everyone.

A person can get a flu shot and a COVID-19 vaccine at the same time, so if they haven't been vaccinated against COVID-19 yet, or they need a booster, there are no real medical reasons to space them apart from a flu shot, Schaffner said

"If it's your opportunity to get both, I would say get both," Schaffner said. Of course, children 11 and younger cannot be vaccinated against COVID-19 yet.

Flu shots are already available at pharmacies like CVS and Walgreen's.

An added motivation to get a flu shot

While Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN's Anderson Cooper Monday that the United States could get back to a "degree of normality" by spring of 2022 if the majority unvaccinated in this country get the COVID-19 vaccine, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases noted that getting through the winter "could be complicated" by the flu.

Getting vaccinated could certainly keep those numbers to a minimum and with COVID-19 in circulation, Hoyen said people have an added incentive to get a flu shot this year.

Kids under 12 still can't get a COVID-19 vaccine, and while the disease can be milder in the little ones, Hoyen said hospitals are seeing more children with COVID-19 and another virus.

"Even if we don't think these things are important for ourselves, we should really do them for a child in our lives so that they can get back to a little more normal," Hoyen said.

Shipments of COVID-19 vaccines will be headed to pharmacies next week under a federal program that aims to get more people vaccinated quickly.

Twenty-one "national pharmacy partners and networks of independent pharmacies representing over 40,000 pharmacy locations nationwide" are taking part in the program, according to a government fact sheet, which includes a list of all participating pharmacies or networks.

In phase one of the distribution plan, 1 million doses will be sent out to about 6,500 stores including Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Publix pharmacies, and others, starting on February 11.

Many pharmacies already vaccinate people against a number of illnesses, including the flu and shingles. Some experts have suggested that pharmacies nationwide will have the capacity to administer 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine once supply is available.

"Based on conservative assumptions, pharmacies have the capacity to meet the demand for 100 million vaccine doses in one month when that level of the vaccine supply is available," Steven Anderson, president and CEO of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, told reporters last month.

Pharmacies are also "readily accessible in most communities, with most Americans living within five miles of a pharmacy," White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said earlier this week.

Here's a look at how the plan will work.

Phase one will include only some pharmacies in certain states

The pharmacies that will have the vaccine are selected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and states, taking into account "their ability to reach some of the populations most at risk for severe illness from COVID-19, including socially vulnerable communities," according to Zients.

"In the early phase, many pharmacies across the country will not have vaccine, or may have very limited supply," Zients said Tuesday.

CVS and Walgreens will be getting a large share of the first shipment of vaccinations.

Starting Thursday, CVS said it will be offering doses to people eligible in some of its stores in 11 states, including California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

CVS will have about a quarter of the total initial million doses.

Walgreens said it will begin offering vaccines on Feb. 12 in 15 states, including Chicago and other places in Illinois, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, including New York City, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Vermont, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

Not every CVS or Walgreens pharmacy in these states will have the vaccine in this initial phase.

However, "as more supply becomes available the company will expand to additional states while increasing the number of stores offering vaccinations," CVS said in a news release.

Walmart will be offering the vaccine in some of its stores in Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Louisiana and Wyoming.

"Once a store or club receives allocation, our online scheduler will be available to make appointments," Walmart said in a statement.

Walmart said last month that it expects it will be able to administer 10 million to 13 million doses per month "when supply and allocations allow" across its more than 5,000 pharmacies in the United States and Puerto Rico.

CVS has said it eventually expects to be able to administer as many as 20 million to 25 million shots per month across its nearly 10,000 stores.

You must be eligible to get a vaccine before booking an appointment

The pharmacies in the program will follow the state's guidelines and only vaccinate people who are eligible in that state.

Most states have followed the CDC's recommendation and are offering vaccines to frontline workers and the elderly in long-term care facilities right now.

States like Florida and Georgia are also offering vaccines to people 65 and older.

Those who are eligible will be able to sign up for an appointment.

Appointments can be made online or by phone

Experts are hopeful that vaccination appointments will eliminate wait times for clients, and make the process similar to getting a flu vaccination at your local drug store.

There is normally a 15-minute wait time after getting the COVID-19 shot, which is in place to make sure people don't have an allergic reaction.

Appointments can be made online or by phone.

At Walgreens, appointments can be booked through a vaccine scheduler. The CVS website lets you search by state.

Requiring everyone to have an appointment will also help stores make sure people are socially distanced and that there's no crowding.

"Vaccines are by appointment, so we know how many people will need to be observed," a Walmart spokesperson told CNN in an email.

In locations where Walmart will host vaccination clinics, it will have floor decals to mark social distancing. Stores will also space out chairs so people are socially distant.

Everyone will be able to get the vaccine at no cost, even people who have no health insurance or are under-insured.

Challenges include supply and staffing

Vaccine supply at this stage is the main challenge. There will only be 1 million doses sent to drug stores at first, and it's not clear if or when the allocation to drug stores will be increased.

That will ramp up over time, as more supply becomes available.

CVS has hired around 10,000 pharmacy technicians to administer vaccines and coronavirus testing, Michael DeAngelis, a CVS spokesman, said. It plans to have around 90,000 employees, including pharmacists, licensed pharmacy technicians and nurses, administering vaccines.

Walmart has not put a number on how many pharmacy staff members it will need to add for vaccine administering. But it is offering current staff a bonus for referring qualified candidates, a Walmart spokesperson told CNN in an email.

Supply constraints and a patchwork system of vaccine eligibility by states are not the only challenges facing these chains and their staff.

The pharmacy chains are also preparing for misinformation online about the vaccine as well.

Giant Eagle, which has more than 400 stores in five states, has prepared talking points for its more than 600 pharmacists who will administer the vaccine. The goal is to help combat false information about the virus, Victor Vercammen, chief pandemic officer at the chain, said in an interview last month.

"We are also doing our best to educate the public ... to help them sift through what might be on social media, what might be factual, what might be opinion, around topics like COVID vaccine safety," he said.

Pharmacies are ready, trade group says

Once the supply of vaccine is available, pharmacies around the country could be vaccinating seven people an hour and 100 million a month, even with current staffing, according to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

The group's model assumes that 40,000 chain pharmacies, including traditional drug stores like CVS and Walgreens, grocery stores like Kroger and large retailers such as Walmart and Costco, can administer 3.3 million vaccinations per day.

The model does not include independent pharmacies in the United States that will also administer the vaccine and are part of the federal partnership.

Video above: CDC document warns delta variant appears to spread as easily as chickenpox

Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Sunday that more "pain and suffering" is on the horizon as COVID-19 cases climb again and officials plead with unvaccinated Americans to get their shots.

Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, also said he doesn't foresee additional lockdowns in the U.S. because he believes enough people are vaccinated to avoid a recurrence of last winter. However, he said not enough are inoculated to "crush the outbreak" at this point.

Fauci's warning comes days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed course to recommend that even vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the delta variant is fueling infection surges. With the switch, federal health officials have cited studies showing vaccinated people can spread the virus to others.

Most new infections in the U.S. continue to be among unvaccinated people. So-called breakthrough infections can occur in vaccinated people, and though the vast majority of those cause mild or no symptoms, the research shows they can carry about the same amount of the coronavirus as those who did not get the shots.

"So we're looking, not, I believe, to lockdown, but we're looking to some pain and suffering in the future because we're seeing the cases go up, which is the reason why we keep saying over and over again, the solution to this is get vaccinated and this would not be happening," Fauci said on ABC.

According to data through July 30 from Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases in the U.S. rose from 30,887 on July 16 to 77,827 on July 30. The seven-day rolling average for the country's daily new deaths rose over the same period from 253 on July 16 to 358 on July 30, though death reports generally lag weeks after infections and even longer after hospitalizations.

Currently, 58% of Americans 12 years and older are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC's data tracker.

However, people are "getting the message" and more are rolling up their sleeves amid the threat of the delta variant, according to the director of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Francis Collins said on CNN's "State of the Union" that vaccinations are up 56% in the U.S. in the last two weeks.

Louisiana, which has the most new cases per capita among states in the past 14 days, has seen vaccinations up threefold over that period, Collins said.

"That's what desperately needs to happen if we are going to get this delta variant put back in its place, because right now it's having a pretty big party in the middle of the country," Collins said.

Collins also said that even with the prevalence of the delta variant, the shots are working "extremely well" and reduce a person's risk of serious illness and hospitalization "25-fold." The guidance for vaccinated people to start wearing masks indoors again in certain places with worsening outbreaks, he said, is mostly meant to protect unvaccinated and immunocompromised people.

The CDC has also recommended indoor mask-wearing for all teachers, staff, students and visitors at schools nationwide, regardless of vaccination status.

Video above — Dr. Fauci: Be sure to get 2nd dose of vaccines

Dr. Anthony Fauci says federal guidance on wearing face coverings indoors may change soon.

Sunday on ABC News, Fauci was asked whether it's time to start relaxing indoor masks requirements. Fauci replied, "I think so, and I think you're going to probably be seeing that as we go along, and as more people get vaccinated."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be updating its guidance almost in real time, as more Americans get vaccinated, said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The CDC relaxed its guidance last month on wearing masks outdoors, but still advises both vaccinated and unvaccinated people to still wear masks in indoor public spaces, such as a mall, movie theater or museum.

"We do need to start being more liberal, as we get more people vaccinated," he added.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday face mask requirements should be relaxed now that the COVID-19 risk is dropping.

"Certainly outdoors, we shouldn't be putting limits on gatherings anymore," Gottlieb said. "The states where prevalence is low, vaccination rates are high, and we have good testing in place, we're identifying infections, I think we could start lifting these restrictions indoors as well, on a broad basis."

Lifting pandemic restrictions when they are no longer necessary will make it easier for public health officials to reimplement them if cases rise again, such as a potential winter surge, Gottlieb said.

Fauci makes a Mother's Day prediction

The U.S. probably will be back to normal by next Mother's Day, if enough people get vaccinated against COVID-19, Fauci said on ABC News.

"I hope that next Mother's Day, we're going to see a dramatic difference than what we're seeing right now," he said. "I believe that we will be about as close to back to normal as we can."

There are some conditions, he noted.

"We've got to make sure that we get the overwhelming proportion of the population vaccinated. When that happens, the virus doesn't really have any place to go," he said. "You're not going to see a surge. You're not going to see the kinds of numbers we see now."

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told CNN Sunday that the country is "turning the corner" on the pandemic — but stressed the importance of all Americans getting vaccinated.

He noted that President Joe Biden set a goal of having 70% of adults vaccinated by July 4.

"We're at 58% today. So we've got a path ahead of us," he said.

Zients said that despite some mask fatigue, Americans should continue to follow the science when it comes to wearing masks indoors, and wait for new CDC guidance before changing their habits.

"We all want to get back to a normal lifestyle. I think we're on the path to do that, but stay disciplined, and let's take advantage of the new privileges of being vaccinated and not wearing masks outdoors for example, unless you're in a crowded place," he said.

In the interview, Biden hinted that it was not yet time to re-open Wisconsin.

"The hospitals in Milwaukee have less than a week’s supply of things they need," said Biden. "There are three things that need to happen: testing, tracking, and treatment."

He also addressed the fact that this virus is hitting the African American community especially hard. According to Biden, no one should have to pay for a test, especially people in historically underrepresented communities. He also added that it's especially important to "keep a clear, clear, ledger of what’s going on in minority communities."

Biden wrapped up the interview by addressing the way our federal government is currently handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’d all be better off if the only person we heard from from the White House was Dr. Fauci," said Biden.

He mentioned that the president should not be hosting these long press conferences daily.

"Follow the science," said Biden. "We're taking too much time."

This article was written by Charles Benson and Julia Marshall for

WTMJ.