where ever you get your podcasts. >> dr. anthony fauci took questions from reporters in his final appearance at the white house before his planned retirement next month. during the briefing, he urged the country to get an updated covid-19 vaccine. the white house covid-19 response coordinator, was also present to answer questions on the pandemic. >> today i'm joined by dr. fauci. as you all know dr. fauci is , retiring next month. and i'm honored -- so honored to have him join me today one last time, one more time at the podium. and he's going to discuss the importance of getting your updated covid vaccine shot ahead of the holidays. for so many americans throughout our fight with covid, dr. fauci has been a source of information and facts. but dr. fauci's leadership and legacy stretch far beyond the past couple of years, as you all have known him. he importance of getting your o.a.t. -- updated covid vaccine shot ahead of the holidays. for so many americans, dr. fauci has been a source of information and facts. dr. fauci's leadership and legacy stretch far beyond the past couple of years. it goes back even further whether it be hiv-aids, ebola or covid-19 for close to four decades and under seven republican and democratic presidents, dr. fauci has always led with the science and our country is stronger and healthier because of his leadership. today, he has returned again to tell you a bit more about science related to the updated covid shots and a clear message you have heard from him before which is please get vaccinated. get your vaccine. without further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce and welcome dr. fauci for his last run at the podium. dr. fauci: thank you, very much for that very kind introduction. it is a pleasure to be here with you again although i believe it's for the last time. i'm going to spend the next couple of minutes talking to you about the importance of getting an updated booster vaccine as we move into the holiday season and the colder weeks and months of the late fall and early winter. let's talk weekly about what we know about the vaccines because we want to make our decisions based on facts, evidence, and data. the vaccine safety that keeps coming up. the answer is overwhelmingly should be off the table. there have been millions of doses distributed worldwide, hundreds of millions in the united states and there is robust safety monitoring systems in place. clearly an extensive body of indication of information indicates they are safe. next, are they effective? if you look at the striking data overwhelmingly it shows the data effectiveness of vaccines particularly in preventing severe illness and death. recent data that has come out indicate that if in fact you are vaccinated and boosted compared to an unvaccinated person, there is 14 times lower risk of dying in the recent era compared to unvaccinated and at least three times lower risk of testing positive compared to unvaccinated individuals. then there are issues that we have to deal with that are sometimes confusing to the american public. if that is such great data, why do you tell us we should be for our own safety and that of our communities and family, why should we get a booster shot? third two issues that in some respects are unprecedented when it comes to infectious diseases. that is, as good as the vaccine is and as good as post infection protection is, the immunity and protection wanes over time. let me put it into perspective. if you get vaccinated with measles or infected with measles, the duration of protection is measured at a minimum in decades and likely for a lifetime. that just happens to unfortunately not be the case when you are dealing with coronavirus and particularly sars-cov-2. you need to update the protection that we know is good. next, we have complicating issue that we can't do anything about is that you have the emergence every several months historically of various. -- the variant. you don't have that with another example just getting back to measles which we were all familiar with. there were no variants of measles. i was infected when i was a youngster because i am cold enough to not be getting the vaccine. that is the same measles that is circulating now in the developing world. it doesn't change and those of the two major reasons for getting a booster. the booster is bivalent. what does that mean? there are two components. one the ancestral original vaccine and the other is the updated. then people ask appropriate questions do they really work? what are the parameters to see if they were? there are two parameters. number one is what the vaccine does in boosting an immune response. we refer to that in medical circles as immune correlates. then there is the real world vaccine efficacy. if you look at the recent data that has now been coming out from the companies as well as academic investigators, it is clear now despite initial confusion that the ba.4 five bivalent booster what we refer to as the updated vaccine clearly induces a better response against ba.4 five and the sub lineages than does the ancestral strain. it looks quite good. clinical efficacy data from the cdc will be released and it already has been released it was supposed to be released at 11:30 which is clinical efficacy data looking at real-world data of hundreds of thousands of people looking at the capability of the virus to protect against the real world ba.4 five that has been circulating. we know that is really quite good. we have immunological data and now clinical efficacy data. everyone was asking where is the clinical efficacy data? now it has come out this morning. we know it is safe. we know it is effective. my message and my final message maybe 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 are eligible to protect yourself, your family, and your community. i urge you to vent -- visit vaccines.gov to find a location where you can get an updated vaccine and please do it as soon as possible. dr.jha: it's hard to follow dr. fauci who i would argue has been the most important consequential public servant in the u.s. in the last half-century and a leader and role model for so many of us. thank you. thank you for reviewing the safety and effectiveness data. i will tell you, it is remarkable to me what data have come in in the last month. i was here in front of all of you a couple of months ago talking about what we expected. all of the evidence that is coming has far exceeded our expectations on the efficacy of the vaccines. the safety data used to be terrific. today, i want to focus on a new six week sprint that the administration is announcing to get more americans updated shots before the cold and winter season really settles in. i want to start by saying we are heartened to say we are not alone in this effort. just yesterday, 12 of america's leading clinical societies the a m naik, american society of physicians, they all joined together with one simple strong recommendation for all americans which is go get your updated covid vaccine shot and flu shot right away. why? why did america's physicians speaking as a unified voice say that? they know the best way to save lives this holiday season is to ensure that all americans particularly seniors get their updated vaccine and flu vaccine. we have already had 35 million americans get their vaccine including 16 million seniors. we are encouraged by steady and strong weekly numbers. we are working hard to reach even more members especially the older and more vulnerable. today we are launching a six week sprint to help americans get their updated shot by the end of the year. as part of this effort with our limited resources that we have, we are making a series of announcements and efforts to expand community-based vaccine efforts. we are announcing $350 million in funding to help immunity health centers people where they are with facts, vaccines, through proven method. we are announcing an additional $125 million to help looking -- local aging and disabled networks. this includes efforts at senior centers. the center for medicare and medicaid services is going to be issuing guidance today reminding nursing homes that they are required to educate the residents on the benefits of covid vaccines and they are required to offer vaccines to residents. nursing homes that don't do these very basic things will be referred for greater oversight and possibly face enforcement. we are doubling down on our trusted messengers work because we know that makes a difference. we are working with national and local organizations, state and local health departments, pharmacies, schools, colleges, universities announced they are hosting clinics. all of this we think will make a difference. also what will make a difference is more paid media efforts by the department of health and human services designed to reach tens of millions of americans. for instance, those watching the world cup. bottom line is we are doing everything we can the next six weeks to help families get their updated covert shots by the end of the year because -- covid shots by the end of the year. remember, for a majority of americans, this will be a once a year shot, just like the flu shot. while i am encouraged by the work so many are doing, we need everybody to step up. we need to make protecting all loved ones an important part of the conversation we have around the thanksgiving table and in the days and weeks ahead. because here is what we know. if folks get their updated vaccines and they get treated if they have a breakthrough infection, we can prevent essentially every covid death in america. that is a remarkable fact two and a half years after we found this virus. but it will take a lot of us that but it will take all -- but it will take all of us to make that happen. get your shots, one in each arm, and that's do all we can to protect the american people -- and let's do all we can to protect the american people. thank you. reporter: why is this necessary? are the numbers lagging? dr. jha: we have had a consistent four to 5 million shots going in. there are a couple things. we are entering a higher risk part of the year. why? the last two years, we saw substantial increase this time of year. we think if people do this now and do this over the next couple weeks, it will protect them over the holidays so we think this is exactly the right time to make this. the administration is deeply committed to making sure we do everything we can to protect the american people. reporter: dr. fauci, two questions if i can. why is the flu so bad this year? how much protection is the flu vaccine providing for those who got it? dr. fauci: let me enter the second question first. the vaccine is well matched to the circulating stain. that is what people are saying about getting the flu vaccine because that is one of the issues we will be dealing with this winter that we can do something about. when you have the seasons of very low flu, which got kind of bumped off the table by covid, when you have respiratory illnesses that circulate, they sort of have niches that you rarely have one and the other at its peak. when we were at a peak with covid, all the other respiratory illnesses, including rsv and flu, were very low compared to other years. what you now open up the society, people are under vaccinated, not everybody is wearing a mask. we are trying to get back and are getting back to some degree of normality. you have a rebound of something that was very low for two seasons. if you look at the flu the last couple years, the peak of covid back in 2020 and 2021, we were having the lowest flu seasons on record so it is no surprise. reporter: this is your last appearance at the podium. he became a famous they -- name in large part because of this. dr. fauci: what i think i have accomplished in my 54 years of age and 38 years as director, although covid is really important, it is a fragment of the total 40 years i have been doing this. i will let other people judge the value or not of my accomplishments. but what i would like people to remember about what i have done is that every day for all of those years i have given it everything i had and never left anything on the field. they will judge rightly or wrongly what i have done. i gave it all i got. reporter: i will ask quickly about the variant that is rising from india and singapore. what should americans expect as that variant continues to rise? i know you were encouraging folks to get the latest booster, but should americans expect what we have been seeing in terms of more cases and not many hospitalizations? what should americans expect? dr. fauci: what americans should expect is from our experience, that you can never definitively say what to expect. should take some comfort in knowing that we have within our wherewithal -- but you should take some comfort in knowing that we have within our wherewithal options. to wear a mask in indoor and congregate settings. we can do a lot to mitigate any search. one thing we are encouraged with looking at other countries such as singapore, which had a big one, they had an increase in cases, but they did not have a major increase in hospitalizations. so we are hoping that a combination vaccinated -- combination of people who have been infected and vaccinated and boosted that we will not see a repeat of what we saw last year at this time. it is one that evades immune response as measured by antibody, which is one of the elements, not the only element of protection. much more cellular t cell responses protect you against disease. the protection is diminished multifold with xpb. you look at the best, it goes down, goes down even more with it. it does not fall off the map, but it goes down to you can expect some protection but not the optimal protection. reporter: first of all on the issue of covid and mask mandates. we are not talking about mask wearing at this moment. masks have become a pejorative in some parts. can you talk about the importance of mask wearing around the holidays? and all the gatherings for thanksgiving and christmas -- and on the gatherings for thanksgiving and christmas, what is your advice for some who have boosted or not boosted or not vaccinated at all? dr. fauci: i think your first and second question are related because what it really tells you is that we have multiple interventions and multiple actions we can take to protect ourselves. there is a whole spectrum. masking is one of them. we are not talking about requirements or mandating. we are talking about if you are in a situation and each individual person evaluates their own risk that in the risk of their family members, like a person who is 25 and living alone or someone who has an elderly grandparent or someone who is immunocompromised. everyone should be vaccinated and boosted with flu and covid. whether or not you wear a mask and another thing we should not underestimate his testing. when we are gathering for any of the holidays as we get into the winter, it makes sense you might want to get a test that day before you come into a place in which you might be infected and spreading or other people who might be there in order to protect. masking is important. you can count masking, vaccine, boosting, testing. all of that is part of the spectrum of protecting yourself and your family. reporter: what do you say about the word mask now being a pejorative? dr. fauci: it should not be. you are absolute right. i know sometimes when you're walking with a mask and other people don't have a mask, you feel guilty. you should not feel guilty. you look terrific. reporter: i have no problem wearing a mask. thank you. sec. jean-pierre: hold on. hold on. hold on. wait. i did not call on you, steven. alex, you are next. reporter: my first question of two questions, last year we were really hoping the holiday season would go well, sort of look normal, and then omicron came along and disrupted a large stretch of january and february schools. are we seeing a dynamic, especially with the new subvariants coming along? my question for you, dr. fauci specifically, what was the most difficult moment of the pandemic response for you over the last two or three years? dr. jha: i will start with the first and dr. fauci can enter the second. first of all, no, you cannot predict with any certainties. we don't know what mother nature will throw at us. these variants, we are tracking them very closely. the good news is if you see a diminishing of our vaccines, they are still effective against the subvariants, way more effective than the original vaccine. i feel very confident that if people continue to get vaccinated at good numbers and people get boosted, we can absolutely have a safe and healthy holiday season. but there is always a caveat of things out of left field you can't predict. but nothing i have seen in the subvariants makes me believe we cannot manage our way through it effectively, especially if people step up and get their vaccine. dr. fauci: so that is a really difficult question to answer about the most difficult. because we all lived through almost three years of the most horrendous outbreak that we have experienced as a society in well over 100 years. but there are certain things that stand out. i can probably write an essay about all the things in the difficult times. but one of the things about a physician whose goal in life is to care for patients and prevent and treat illness and alleviate suffering, i remember in my days in medical school and as a resident, when the patient came into the whether or not they like you, was angry with you, whether a rich person or a poor person, you treated everybody the same because you cared about them and wanted everyone to walk out healthy. so when i see people in this country because of the divisiveness in our country of not getting vaccinated for reasons that have nothing to do with public health but have to do because of divisiveness and ideological differences, as a physician, it pains me because i don't want to see anybody get infected. i don't want to see anybody get hospitalized. i don't want to see anybody die from covid. whether you are a far right republican or far left democrat doesn't make a difference to me. i look at it the same way i did in the emergency room in the middle of new york city when i was taking care of everybody that was coming in off the street. that is the thing that troubles me most about this. reporter: dr. fauci, only 13% -- sec. jean-pierre: hold on one second. we have a process here. i am not calling out on people who yell. you are being disrespectful to your colleagues, and you are being disrespectful to our guests. i will not call on you if you yell. and also, you are taking time off the clock because dr. fauci has to leave in a couple minutes. i am done. i am not getting in a back-and-forth with you. go ahead, jeremy. [indiscernible] >> you should allow her to answer. sec. jean-pierre: jeremy, it is not your turn. it is not your turn. >> she has a valid question. sec. jean-pierre: i hear the question. i hear your question, but we are not doing this the way you want it. this is disrespectful. in his. i -- it is. i am done. i am done with you right now. go ahead. you are taking time away from your colleagues. reporter: only 13% of adults have gotten the booster. 70% of adults have completed their primary series. which of those numbers is more important in your mind in terms of anticipating how bad the winter surge could be, if there is one, and the number of hospitalizations? and i have a second question. dr. fauci: they are both important so i don't want to say one is more and diminish the other. but the people who are most at risk are the unvaccinated. we have 68% of our population vaccinated. that means