See below for video and an email from the Washington Post regarding Gov. Northam’s interview with The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty this morning, in which Northam “responds to ramping up vaccine supplies to pharmacies and other outlets across the country.” Among other things, Northam said we’re now up to about 40,000 vaccines per day and that we are headed in the right direction. Northam added that he anticipates “herd immunity” by “early- to mid-summer”; that “it has to be a top priority for all of us to get our children back into the classroom”; and that it’s “like night and day between” Biden and Trump.
In an interview with The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty today, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) responds to ramping up vaccine supplies to pharmacies and other outlets across the country. “We have set up 36 CVS pharmacies in Virginia and we’ve put them in hopefully equitable locations across Virginia so that we can get into some of the underserved communities,” Northam said. “But we hope that program has expanded, so in addition to the sites that we already have going into churches, mobile units, a lot of different ways to get shots into people’s arms… the pharmacies will be a big part of that process as we move forward, so we are very excited about that.” VIEW CLIP
Jake Wood, the co-founder & CEO of Team Rubico also discussed the launch of The Veterans Coalition for Vaccination. “It’s really an effort to coalesce as many veterans that live in this country as we can to support state and local governments, healthcare systems and any medical providers that are in need of assistance as we roll out this vaccination nationwide. The one thing that we know is that it is a miracle that we have multiple viable vaccines, but vaccines don’t save lives, vaccinations do.” VIEW CLIP
ADDITIONAL SOUNDBITES BELOW— Full program is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHaKkZbo52k. Video is available for on-air use with mandatory on-screen credit to The Washington Post.
VIRGINIA GOV. NORTHAM (D)
On what has been lost in education being disrupted: “Our children definitely learn better when they’re in a classroom. The social interaction is important. We have seen higher rates of depression which is so unfortunate.[…] One thing I think is very important that we will be announcing tomorrow is that we want to extend our classroom to this summer to allow our children to catchup so everyone will be ready in the fall. We are working with our teachers, school boards, superintendents, it has to be a top priority for all of us to get our children back into the classroom” VIEW CLIP
On herd immunity for Virginia: “Our anticipated date is really by early to mid-summer. One of the things that was a challenge for us is we didn’t know how many doses we would have in Virginia. The pharmacies and the healthcare systems were keeping that second dose and now that we’ve got a commitment to have more shipment coming in each week we’ll take the second doses and convert them into first doses.” VIEW CLIP
On the difference in Biden’s administration handling the pandemic: “The difference is leadership, the difference is being factual, following science, that’s certainly important to me being a physician because the science is clear… when our previous president was talking about using disinfectants, using ultraviolent lights, using hydroxychlcorline… that mixed messaging and also the political divisiveness. The simple thing about wearing a mask, it became political… Now we have a president that is following the science, that’s being truthful. It’s like night and day between the leadership now and what we had previously.” VIEW CLIP
On what more Northam wants to see from Washington: “We need resources to help Virginians get back on their feet. Obviously businesses have been lost. People have lost their jobs over 1.5 million Virginians have filed for unemployment. We had people that have lost roofs with evictions, food and security and helping small business get back on their feet. We’ve already had a couple relief packages. I’m pleased the president is talking about another relief package but people are hurting.” VIEW CLIP
CEO & CO-FOUNDER OF TEAM RUBICO, JAKE WOOD
On if there is a role for the active duty military: “I absolutely think there is a role for the national guard. This plays to their strengths quite well. I hope that governors continue to consider the license share requirements for who is able to administer the vaccine. In many states it requires a nurse or higher and I think that is simply putting a very unnecessary constraint and limiting factor on the volume of vaccinations that we can give. Nurses and Doctors are overwhelmed…” VIEW CLIP
On the outreach for The Veterans Coalition for Vaccination: “It has been really incredible over the last couple of weeks the level of outreach that we have received from the new administration, senior level leaders within the White House, withing VA, within HHS, FEMA, DOD, all across the spectrum of federal agencies have been reaching out to learn more about what we’re doing and to try and chart a path for collaboration where we can add value to their efforts.” VIEW CLIP
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