COLONEL ALLELY: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming. You thank me now. Maybe when I’m sticking your arm, you won’t be thanking me. No, I’m kidding.
I am Colonel Eric Allely, the National Guard state surgeon, and I’m here today with some folks from our medical detachment and from one of our mobile vaccination support teams, the same teams going out across the state helping local and state Health Departments vaccinate Marylanders across the state as we ramp this up.
Today we have the honor and privilege of vaccinating the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, both of their wives, Dr. Chan, and some others here in the State House. So what we’re going to do today is make sure that everybody is up to speed. This is the Moderna vaccination, which means 4 weeks from now we’ll have to be back giving the second dose. I just want to ask everyone here to make sure that they have filled out a complete or are aware of the vaccine requirements and the vaccine counter indications. There’s no one here we’ve seen who has any of those issues.
We’re going to have the vaccinators begin their work now, and then the Governor will give a few words as well, but then we’ll also hold them around for 10-15 minutes to make sure they don’t have any reaction.
We have an outstanding team here. These folks are high speed medics, a lot of them have been deployed overseas, and they’re among the very best that we have to offer in the Maryland National Guard..
With that, who do we have to vaccinate the Governor?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Nice work.
SPEAKER: Thank you.
COLONEL ALLELY: Are you going to do the First Lady?
Lieutenant Governor?
[Laughter] .
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, good morning, everybody. I really didn’t feel that at all. Great job, guys. Thank you so much.
I want to thank Maryland First Lady, the Lieutenant Governor and his wife Monica, our Second Lady, along with Deputy Health Secretary, Dr. Chan, for joining me here today to receive these COVID-19 vaccinations, to show people that they are safe and to encourage Marylanders to sign up to get vaccinated.
I want to especially thank the Maryland National Guard medics from our emergency vaccination teams. The Guard, they’re assisting counties with vaccinations and testing all across the state. They also have 1,000 others in Washington protecting our nation’s Capitol. You guys did a great job. I really didn’t feel that.
I also feel good. I feel like I could drop and give you 100 pushups right now. General, I don’t know if you’re going to ask know do that. But maybe later.
But we’re all looking forward to the day when we can take off and throw away our masks, when we can get all of our children back into school, and when we can go out for a big celebration at our favorite crowded restaurant or bar with all of our family and friends. The only way that we’re going to return to a sense of normalcy is by these COVID-19 vaccines, which have been approved by America’s leading medical experts. The development process was rigorous and transparent throughout, with every phase and every trial subject to FDA oversight and expert approval.
At 95 percent efficacy, these vaccines are very effective at protecting you from the virus, and the likelihood of any real side effects is less than 0.5 percent. And when they do occur, they’re just normal signs that your body is building up protection against the virus.
Getting vaccinated is the only way to keep you, your family, your friends, and your community healthy and safe. And it is absolutely critical to preventing more illnesses, more hospitalizations, and more deaths. It’s the only way to end the damage to our economy and to bring this pandemic to an end.
We are carrying out an aggressive plan to help all the vaccinators get more shots into more arms. As of today, Maryland has administered more than 255,000 doses, which is more than 32 other states, and we are administering doses at a faster pace than we are currently receiving them from the federal government.
Today we’re moving into phase 1B, and then expanding into phase C starting next Monday. Both months ahead of schedule.
More pharmacies will be coming online beginning next week, and the Maryland Department of Health and the Maryland National Guard are currently working with county Health Departments and private partners on the opening of mass vaccination sites at central locations across Maryland.
As of today, as I mentioned, we are in phase 1B of the COVID-19 vaccination protocols, which means that all residents ages 75 or over are eligible to receive vaccines.
Next week all Marylanders age 65 and over will be eligible as well. If you have a parent, a grandparent, or a neighbor who is 65 or older, please encourage them to get vaccinate and to help them make a plan to get vaccinated. To find a provider, go to covidvax.maryland.gov. Vaccinations will be done by appointment only at this time.
I cannot emphasize strongly enough that there is still a very limited supply of vaccines available to us from the federal government, which is only giving us approximately 10,000 doses per day. There are 1.5 million people who are currently eligible in phase 1, and they need two doses. That means 3 million doses of the vaccine. Overall, we will require 12 million doses to reach two doses for all Marylanders. Right now we have received 4.5 percent of that amount.
So again, this is going to take a long time. It’s going to take a great deal of patience. And it’s going to take a whole lot more vaccines. But we need to make that — we need to get a commitment from the companies making the vaccines to make a whole lot more, a commitment from the incoming Biden Administration to get us more doses, and then we need a commitment from all of the providers and vaccinators to ramp up their pace and we will determine which providers can get the shots into the arms the fastest, and then do whatever we possibly can to help them.
You’re seeing stories about how the vaccines are not being used fast enough. I can assure you that is going to soon change, and you will see stories that we are running out of vaccines being provided to us in order to keep up with demand. And you will likely see people in long lines or on long wait lists all across the country.
This will take time, and we continue to encourage anyone to be patient while the providers work to get their vaccinations increased.
Lastly, today is Martin Luther King, Jr., day, a time that we set aside to honor his example of service and humility. It was Dr. King who said, “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You only need a heart full of grace.” In that spirit, I’m asking today each and every Marylander to serve, by continuing to do your part to keep yourselves, your families, your friends, your community, and your country healthy and safe.
With that, I’d be happy to take one or two questions.
SPEAKER: What have the efforts been to convince people that the vaccine is safe and works well?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: There are a lot of different reasons that people have concerns and that’s one of the reasons we’re here today getting these vaccines, to show people that they are safe and to remind people of the process that this went through.
Some of it are legitimate concerns about the process and the fact that maybe it did happen 2 years faster than it normally does and they want to make sure it went through the right processes.
Some of it is intentional disinformation campaign, just phony sites on the internet convincing people not to take the vaccine. But we’re going to do everything we can to convince people they all need to get the vaccine if we ever want to get back to normal. This is just the first of many public campaigns that we’re going to do across the state, with visible people in the community to convince, you know, to find role models in various community groups, people who are well recognized, to try to show the people that are watching that they should follow their lead and go get vaccinated.
SPEAKER: How did it feel?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: It felt great. I really did not feel the needle go in.
SPEAKER: What’s your concern that the second shot won’t be available?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I don’t have any concerns about that. I believe we have a pretty good plan and we’re ramping things up, but the second shots will be available. We’re already — I don’t know what the number is this morning but all the people who got the first round are already moving in to the second shot.
Anybody else?
SPEAKER: People say the sites are overwhelmed, they can’t get on. What do you say?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I understand the frustration. Like I said, we need 12 million doses. We have 500,000. This is a brand-new thing. This is the largest peace-making effort in America, and it will take time to ramp up. This is happening all over the country. It’s not going to happen overnight.
We are supposed to move into phase 1B and C in March. We’re moving in January. So we’re ahead of schedule. We’re ahead of the pace. They’re giving them to us at 10,000 a day. On Saturday we did 25,000. I think we’re averaging around 15,000. So 50 percent more that we’re getting. That’s why I’m saying we’re going to run out. We can’t give it to everybody right away. That’s why we started working on a detailed plan we started working on in April and got approved in September.
We will do everything we can. Thank you.
It’s not a real press conference. We are just doing a couple of questions today. We already did like four.
Thank you very much. We appreciate it.
I am Colonel Eric Allely, the National Guard state surgeon, and I’m here today with some folks from our medical detachment and from one of our mobile vaccination support teams, the same teams going out across the state helping local and state Health Departments vaccinate Marylanders across the state as we ramp this up.
Today we have the honor and privilege of vaccinating the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, both of their wives, Dr. Chan, and some others here in the State House. So what we’re going to do today is make sure that everybody is up to speed. This is the Moderna vaccination, which means 4 weeks from now we’ll have to be back giving the second dose. I just want to ask everyone here to make sure that they have filled out a complete or are aware of the vaccine requirements and the vaccine counter indications. There’s no one here we’ve seen who has any of those issues.
We’re going to have the vaccinators begin their work now, and then the Governor will give a few words as well, but then we’ll also hold them around for 10-15 minutes to make sure they don’t have any reaction.
We have an outstanding team here. These folks are high speed medics, a lot of them have been deployed overseas, and they’re among the very best that we have to offer in the Maryland National Guard..
With that, who do we have to vaccinate the Governor?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Nice work.
SPEAKER: Thank you.
COLONEL ALLELY: Are you going to do the First Lady?
Lieutenant Governor?
- GOVERNOR RUTHERFORD: Governor, I did feel that.
[Laughter] .
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, good morning, everybody. I really didn’t feel that at all. Great job, guys. Thank you so much.
I want to thank Maryland First Lady, the Lieutenant Governor and his wife Monica, our Second Lady, along with Deputy Health Secretary, Dr. Chan, for joining me here today to receive these COVID-19 vaccinations, to show people that they are safe and to encourage Marylanders to sign up to get vaccinated.
I want to especially thank the Maryland National Guard medics from our emergency vaccination teams. The Guard, they’re assisting counties with vaccinations and testing all across the state. They also have 1,000 others in Washington protecting our nation’s Capitol. You guys did a great job. I really didn’t feel that.
I also feel good. I feel like I could drop and give you 100 pushups right now. General, I don’t know if you’re going to ask know do that. But maybe later.
But we’re all looking forward to the day when we can take off and throw away our masks, when we can get all of our children back into school, and when we can go out for a big celebration at our favorite crowded restaurant or bar with all of our family and friends. The only way that we’re going to return to a sense of normalcy is by these COVID-19 vaccines, which have been approved by America’s leading medical experts. The development process was rigorous and transparent throughout, with every phase and every trial subject to FDA oversight and expert approval.
At 95 percent efficacy, these vaccines are very effective at protecting you from the virus, and the likelihood of any real side effects is less than 0.5 percent. And when they do occur, they’re just normal signs that your body is building up protection against the virus.
Getting vaccinated is the only way to keep you, your family, your friends, and your community healthy and safe. And it is absolutely critical to preventing more illnesses, more hospitalizations, and more deaths. It’s the only way to end the damage to our economy and to bring this pandemic to an end.
We are carrying out an aggressive plan to help all the vaccinators get more shots into more arms. As of today, Maryland has administered more than 255,000 doses, which is more than 32 other states, and we are administering doses at a faster pace than we are currently receiving them from the federal government.
Today we’re moving into phase 1B, and then expanding into phase C starting next Monday. Both months ahead of schedule.
More pharmacies will be coming online beginning next week, and the Maryland Department of Health and the Maryland National Guard are currently working with county Health Departments and private partners on the opening of mass vaccination sites at central locations across Maryland.
As of today, as I mentioned, we are in phase 1B of the COVID-19 vaccination protocols, which means that all residents ages 75 or over are eligible to receive vaccines.
Next week all Marylanders age 65 and over will be eligible as well. If you have a parent, a grandparent, or a neighbor who is 65 or older, please encourage them to get vaccinate and to help them make a plan to get vaccinated. To find a provider, go to covidvax.maryland.gov. Vaccinations will be done by appointment only at this time.
I cannot emphasize strongly enough that there is still a very limited supply of vaccines available to us from the federal government, which is only giving us approximately 10,000 doses per day. There are 1.5 million people who are currently eligible in phase 1, and they need two doses. That means 3 million doses of the vaccine. Overall, we will require 12 million doses to reach two doses for all Marylanders. Right now we have received 4.5 percent of that amount.
So again, this is going to take a long time. It’s going to take a great deal of patience. And it’s going to take a whole lot more vaccines. But we need to make that — we need to get a commitment from the companies making the vaccines to make a whole lot more, a commitment from the incoming Biden Administration to get us more doses, and then we need a commitment from all of the providers and vaccinators to ramp up their pace and we will determine which providers can get the shots into the arms the fastest, and then do whatever we possibly can to help them.
You’re seeing stories about how the vaccines are not being used fast enough. I can assure you that is going to soon change, and you will see stories that we are running out of vaccines being provided to us in order to keep up with demand. And you will likely see people in long lines or on long wait lists all across the country.
This will take time, and we continue to encourage anyone to be patient while the providers work to get their vaccinations increased.
Lastly, today is Martin Luther King, Jr., day, a time that we set aside to honor his example of service and humility. It was Dr. King who said, “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You only need a heart full of grace.” In that spirit, I’m asking today each and every Marylander to serve, by continuing to do your part to keep yourselves, your families, your friends, your community, and your country healthy and safe.
With that, I’d be happy to take one or two questions.
SPEAKER: What have the efforts been to convince people that the vaccine is safe and works well?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: There are a lot of different reasons that people have concerns and that’s one of the reasons we’re here today getting these vaccines, to show people that they are safe and to remind people of the process that this went through.
Some of it are legitimate concerns about the process and the fact that maybe it did happen 2 years faster than it normally does and they want to make sure it went through the right processes.
Some of it is intentional disinformation campaign, just phony sites on the internet convincing people not to take the vaccine. But we’re going to do everything we can to convince people they all need to get the vaccine if we ever want to get back to normal. This is just the first of many public campaigns that we’re going to do across the state, with visible people in the community to convince, you know, to find role models in various community groups, people who are well recognized, to try to show the people that are watching that they should follow their lead and go get vaccinated.
SPEAKER: How did it feel?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: It felt great. I really did not feel the needle go in.
SPEAKER: What’s your concern that the second shot won’t be available?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I don’t have any concerns about that. I believe we have a pretty good plan and we’re ramping things up, but the second shots will be available. We’re already — I don’t know what the number is this morning but all the people who got the first round are already moving in to the second shot.
Anybody else?
SPEAKER: People say the sites are overwhelmed, they can’t get on. What do you say?
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I understand the frustration. Like I said, we need 12 million doses. We have 500,000. This is a brand-new thing. This is the largest peace-making effort in America, and it will take time to ramp up. This is happening all over the country. It’s not going to happen overnight.
We are supposed to move into phase 1B and C in March. We’re moving in January. So we’re ahead of schedule. We’re ahead of the pace. They’re giving them to us at 10,000 a day. On Saturday we did 25,000. I think we’re averaging around 15,000. So 50 percent more that we’re getting. That’s why I’m saying we’re going to run out. We can’t give it to everybody right away. That’s why we started working on a detailed plan we started working on in April and got approved in September.
We will do everything we can. Thank you.
It’s not a real press conference. We are just doing a couple of questions today. We already did like four.
Thank you very much. We appreciate it.