CDC Director: COVID Vaccines Working But Still Too Many Deaths

There is "early evidence" the COVID-19 vaccine campaign is working, but there still are 1,000 deaths every day, and that is "way too many," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday. 

"What we really want to do is make sure that we can reach all the population that can get the vaccination so we can get that mortality rate down," Walensky said on NBC's "Today." "What worries me is the steady flow at 50,000, 60,000 (diagnosed) that we continue to see that even today."

Still, some 2.5 million people are being vaccinated every day, said Walensky, and "we're really starting to see the positive effects of that vaccination."

In people over the age of 65, mortality rates have dropped from 16 out of every 100,000 in January to one in 100,000 now, she added, "so we're getting that early evidence this vaccine is working."

"What we really want to do is make sure that we can reach all the population that can get the vaccination so we can get that mortality rate down because we're still seeing about a thousand deaths a day," she added. 

Meanwhile, the CDC is watching the numbers carefully in connection with schools reopening as well, said Walensky. 

"Our road map for the operational guidance of opening schools does have stratification by how much disease is in the community," she said. "That said, we know that even when there is disease in the community, if you take all of those layered mitigation steps we have put forward, the masking, the distancing, whether it be three feet or six feet, the good hand hygiene, the contact tracing, we know when you do those things that we can keep our children safe and that in-school transmission is actually not happening. "

Further, teachers are getting their vaccines, with 1.3 million getting their shots in March, including a half-million last week alone, Walensky said. 

"We also have testing rolling out in schools, lots of resources for testing in schools," she said. "We are encouraged by all that we're finding and data in schools. Children are not getting COVID, and when you take these layered mitigation strategies, adults are not getting COVID either."

Her comments come after Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Wednesday that many schools are reopening this spring, but he expects 100% of the nation's schools to be open for in-person learning this coming fall. 

The CDC is also working with the Biden administration to ensure safe COVID practices at the nation's border, particularly when it comes to the overcrowding at the holding facilities for child migrants, said Walensky. 

"I think we all recognize the CBP facilities are not equipped to handle numbers they have," she said.  "They are not equipped to handle all the children coming in. And we're working really hard with the administration to ensure those children get to safe environments where there are caseworkers and teachers to help them. And all those environments, the CDC is working really closely with the administration to ensure safe Covid practices."

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