GOVERNOR HOGAN: Good afternoon. Joining me today from the Maryland Department of Health are Secretary Dennis Schrader and Deputy Secretary for public health Dr. Jinlene Chan.
Before we get started on our COVID update, I want to first touch on the colonial pipeline situation. On Saturday we activated a statewide response and began coordinating closely with the federal administration and local jurisdictions in response to the temporary disruption to the pipeline. Yesterday I convened a meeting of my full cabinet and received additional updates from the state’s energy and emergency planning teams.
Today I authorized Maryland transportation Secretary Greg Slater to take emergency actions to give our state the flexibility that we need in order to address any potential disruption of the state’s fuel supply. Operators of the pipeline continue to anticipate that this disruption will be short term, but our state has mobilized a multi-agency response and is prepared for all contingencies. While I know that there’s a great deal of anxiety and concern, I want people of Maryland to know that our supply chain is still working. There is certainly no need for panic buying. In fact, that would make the situation worse. Our team is continuing to closely monitor this incident, and we will keep Marylanders fully informed of any new developments.
Now, moving on, I’m pleased to report that we’re making great progress on COVID-19. Our continued recovery often a return to normal are dependent on two key factors. Getting Marylanders vaccinated and continuing to see improvements in all our key health metrics. As of today Maryland has administered more than 5.3 million COVID-19 vaccines. We have vaccinated 86 percent of all Marylanders over the age of 65 and 65.4 percent of all Marylanders over 18. Maryland is vaccinating at a faster rate than the nation and faster than most other states, and we are well on our way to reaching 70 percent of all adults vaccinated by Memorial Day weekend.
As part of our no arm left behind initiatives, we continue to have more than 3,000 points of distribution. We have now expanded to 665 pharmacies and 271 doctors’ offices. Our equity task force has now completed over 350 missions. Continue to have 13 mass vaccination sites open and fully operational all across the state. Direct scheduling remains immediately available at all of these state sites. You can also walk up or drive through at any of them with no appointment and immediately get your shot.
Thanks to the hard work of our team of more than 11,400 people who have been working around the clock to get more shots into the arms of more Marylanders, it has never been easier to find and to get a vaccine. And we encourage everyone to hasn’t done so to immediately do it.
As a result of all this progress, all our health metrics continue to show dramatic improvement across the board. Maryland’s case rate per 100,000 has dropped by 64 percent over the last 4 weeks down to only 8.5 percent, the lowest it has been since September 30th of last year. Our positivity rate has now dropped below 3 percent to only 2.74 percent from a peak of 9.43 percent in January and a high of 26.83 last year.
Our positivity rate is now at the lowest point since September 30th of last year. September 29th of last year.
COVID hospitalizations continue to significantly drop across every region of the state. They are down more than 60 percent from their winter peak a couple of months ago. And at their lowest point since November 10th of last year.
As a direct result of our incredibly fast pace of vaccination and because of the subsequent declines in hospitalizations, positivity rate, transmission rate, and case rates, today we are able to take additional actions on our return to normalcy. Effective this Saturday, we are lifting all restrictions on all outdoor entertainment, art, sports venues, including all ticketed events as well as all indoor entertainment venues, conventions, and other businesses. All restrictions will also be lifted on both indoor and outdoor dining. So effectively as of Saturday, every business in Maryland will be able to open at 100 percent with no restrictions.
The cruise terminal will be opening in Baltimore. The CDC is working directly with ports and the cruise industry representatives are preparing for their safe return to business.
The only thing that will remain in place for the time being is the indoor mask requirement, which we will be able to lift as soon as we reach the federal goal of 70 percent of adults receiving at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. President Biden set the goal of trying to get things back to normal by the 4th of July. Here in Maryland, our plan is to get everything back to normal by Memorial Day.
We are making amazing progress towards that goal. In fact, we’re just 4.6 percent of our vaccinations away from reaching it.
Our health and economic recovery continues to outpace the nation, and we’ve had 11 consecutive months of job growth in Maryland. To further accelerate our economic recovery, I have directed the Maryland Department of Labor to work in collaboration with the federal administration to begin the process of reinstating work search requirements so that we can connect more job seekers with good employment opportunities.
We truly are closer than ever to getting back to a sense of normalcy, but once again, the fastest way to get rid of our damn masks and to put this pandemic behind us once and for all is for every single eligible Marylander to get vaccinated as quickly as possible. The majority of Marylanders are now safer; however, those who are not vaccinated continue to slow our health and economic recovery efforts. They also continue to be at risk of infection, hospitalization, and death. So please, if you have not yet been vaccinated, drive through or walk through one of our state mass vaccination sites, schedule an appointment with your doctor, go to your local pharmacy, or call the state’s COVID-19 vaccination support center at 1-855-MD-GOVAX.
With nearly two-thirds of all adults in our state vaccinated, there is simply no excuse for putting off your vaccination any longer. Getting a vaccine is the right thing to do, not just for your own safety but for the safety of your friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors as well. It is the only way to get rid of the masks, put COVID in our rearview mirror, and to allow us to return to our normal lives.
The FDA has approved the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 12-15. For the past few weeks the state Health Department has been preparing for this and working on an aggressive plan to vaccinate our 12-15-year-olds. We expect final approval from the feds later today. Eligibility for adolescents in Maryland will begin tomorrow at 11 of our state’s mass vaccination sites as well as hundreds of pharmacy locations will be immediately ready to vaccinate our 12-15-year-olds.
For more details on that effort, I’m going to turn it over to Dr. Chan.
JINLENE CHAN: Thank you, Governor, and thank you Mr. Secretary.
I am pleased to be here today to talk about the pediatric vaccination effort for those 12 and up here in the state of Maryland. I know that there’s many parents across the state now who are very interested in getting their kids vaccinated, and I would like to provide some information about that. As the Governor mentioned on Monday, the federal Food and Drug Administration approved the EOA expansion for those 12-15 years old for the Pfizer vaccine. This has met the FDA’s rigorous and scientific standards for safety as well as efficacy for kids between the ages of 12-15. In clinical trials that included more than 2,000 adolescents in that anal range, the Pfizer vaccine demonstrated 100 percent efficacy in preventing COVID-19 infection. It also showed robust antibody responses in that age group, which means that their immune system was responsive to the vaccine in similar ways to young adults and also teenagers 16-17 for whom Pfizer was already approved.
It also showed that the vaccine was well tolerated with similar side effects as we have heard and seen among adults and young adults, including pain at the site of injection, fatigue, headache, sometimes a low-grade fever or muscle aches, but those usually resolve within 2-3 days.
Earlier this afternoon, the CDC’s advisory committee on immunization practices met to discuss in detail the data on those safety and efficacy for the Pfizer vaccine. What they did after considerable discussion and after presentation of the detailed data is that they did vote to recommend that the Pfizer vaccine be approved for use in children 12-15 years of age, and more detailed recommendations from their meeting will be issued at a later point. So these are recommendations that will be made to CDC.
So in preparation for this, here in the state of Maryland we have been working for weeks to provide vaccines for children in this age group, and once the CDC issues its final approval, which we anticipate this evening, families can take their adolescent to locations around the state where Pfizer vaccine is already offered. To start, as the Governor has mentioned, we have 11 state-run mass vaccination sites that have the Pfizer vaccine, and about 300 pharmacies as well as locations in local Health Departments and in hospital-based clinics that will be available on our COVID vax website.
We’ve been working closely with our local health officers in every county, with the Maryland academy of pediatrics as well as academy of family physicians here in the state to work on expanding locations in physician practices where 12-15-year-olds can get vaccinated in the coming weeks. This will include more pediatricians and other providers that are willing to vaccinate minors. And we know that this is important because families have said time and again that they would want to get vaccines at their pediatrician offices so that’s why we are working actively to make sure these providers have as soon as possible availability of Pfizer vaccine for their patients.
At many of these sites, it is important to note, including at the state mass vaccination sites, minors will need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian in order to be vaccinated. We encourage families to go to our vaccine finder website at COVIDvax.maryland.gov to look for a location that has Pfizer vaccine. This website has been newly updated with a new search function to allow families to search specifically for locations that are able to vaccinate individuals 12 and up.
So an important question is why vaccinate? Why vaccinate young kids? You know, as the Governor said, and if you look at our metrics, this vaccine and the other lifesaving vaccines, including from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are part of our state’s toolbox to help us turn the corner on COVID-19. And especially as we race now against the ongoing spread of these new variants that are more infectious, it is more important than ever to get everyone vaccinated, and now we can vaccinate adolescents 12-15.
The proportion as we have seen even here in Maryland of children and teens who are getting infected with COVID-19 has been increasing, and this has increased because, in part at least, of how well we have done in vaccinating adults. So now our attention shifts so that we can focus on vaccinating younger children. Vaccines can protect teens against infections and potential complications from COVID-19, and, importantly, also decreases the chance that they could spread the infection to others.
Of course I understand that this is a personal decision for families and for parents, and I encourage families to ask questions and continue to seek out information from trusted sources, especially your pediatricians and your family doctors.
But I have to say, I am not just a physician. I am also a parent. And my son falls into this age category. And so we have been having conversations with him about getting vaccinated and what the importance of it is, and what to expect and why it is important for him so that he can get back to some of the activities that he missed out on last year, like summer camps and hanging out with friends and other activities. So this is really what we are vaccinating for, to get back to a normal that our kid and our families deserve.
So once the CDC provides its formal approval, we will make additional announcements to parents, providers, and clinicians, so thank you so much, and I’m happy to take questions.
I’ll turn it back to you, Governor.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Let’s give the hard ones to you.
With that, we would be happy…
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: So we have been following the other states and talk with other governors about this. I’ve certainly heard from business owners not just in Ocean City but all across the state, particularly in the hospitality, restaurant business, about the difficulty in getting people back, which is precisely why we were trying to get the work search requirement back in. It’s not just anecdotal. There’s no question there are some people that have made the decision to stay home and collect unemployment rather than returning to work. We hear that every day. So we think the step we’re taking is probably the right one. There are some people who really have been trying to find work and do need those benefits, and Maryland’s cost of living is higher than a lot of other states. So we’re not as impacted. Our unemployment is very low and 11 months of straight job growth, we’re not as directly impacted. At this point we think we’re taking the steps we need to take.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Most of the experts are now talking about that. It was President Biden who set that goal, not me. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Gottlieb, and others are saying we should be lifting the mask rule now. We think we found the right spot. Our numbers are, as I mentioned, much lower than they’ve been all year. Hitting our lows of last year. Hospitalizations, everything is dropping. And we believe we’re taking the prudent steps. We’re not taking it today because we want to continue to make a little more progress.
SPEAKER: Can you explain which of the 11 state-run mass vax sites, which ones are offering Pfizer? And is the FEMA one offering Pfizer?
JINLENE CHAN: That’s available on our website. I believe the FEMA one does have Pfizer vaccine, the one in Greenbelt. So I would have to — I don’t have the list in front of me, but I’m happy to provide that. We want to make that available. But our mass vaccination sites are located on the COVIDvax.maryland.gov, and on that website, it lists each mass vaccination site and which vaccine they provide.
SPEAKER: May I just follow up on that? I know that local health officers have been telling people they don’t keep permission to give the Pfizer. So once a switch is flipped, scheduling in the computer, but could local entities or pharmacies give Pfizer tonight once it is signed off?
JINLENE CHAN: Potentially. I mean, many of the vaccination clinics are already planned, and so we actually did work with our health officers to allow scheduling to happen, for example, ahead of time. But most local Health Departments and others are planning for vaccines potentially starting tomorrow.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Dr. Chan probably has a better answer.
(Question off mic).
JINLENE CHAN: No, I think what the FDA and the CDC weighed is what is the risk benefit. And as we look at COVID-19, you know, the impact of cases, so getting sick is one thing. Getting hospitalized, you know that individuals who are older of course are at the highest risk of dying. But it doesn’t mean that it’s zero risk for the younger adults and for kids as well. And so for me, it’s about protecting my child. But also protecting the people who might be around him. You know, whether it’s other adults and other teachers, people who might not be able to get vaccinated. And there are those who can’t.
So it’s the same issue with any vaccination. But what we’re looking to do is protect the person and also protect the people around him.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: It’s really not much of a change. It’s still a tiered project that happens in various segments. And the bridge has always been the top priority. We’ve reached an accord with Governor Northam, the accord that connects the two states. It’s where the biggest bottleneck is, but our intention is to move forward. It all has to get fixed or it’s not going to do much to solve the traffic. But we just want to move forward with the bridge and move on with the next steps.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, I would love to see Camden Yards get filled up. Even when there was no pandemic, we had a hard time filling it up. Since we’re the landlord, we would love to get that extra rent money. But we would love to see it. These are decisions — because we are authorizing them to be able to do it doesn’t mean each business is going to make that decision. You know, major league baseball and the Orioles will make their own decisions about what to do, but I think they’re going to want to increase capacity definitely, and I’ve had discussions with both the Ravens and the Washington Football Team. They’re both anxious to be at 100 percent in the fall and they should be able to do it.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We authorized the Preakness to go to 50 percent capacity many months ago and they only chose to go to 10 percent. I don’t think there’s going to be any change by Saturday. But next year hopefully we’ll have it full again.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Actually, we have about 4 percent in Maryland which is much better than most of the other states that are impacted. I think Georgia is at 19 percent. So it’s about 500 percent worse. But we do have a few stations that are 4 percent that are out of gas primarily because of people, you know, going and filling up their tanks and filling up gas cans because they were under the impression that everybody was running out of gas. We’re in a much better situation for a number of reasons, but you know, the port of Baltimore, we bring a heck of a lot of our oil in through there and it goes on trucks and it’s not impacted by the pipeline.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: That’s a great question. We’ve been trying to get answers and I’m not sure anyone knows the answers. This is an unregulated industry. It’s a privately owned pipeline. We have no jurisdiction over them whatsoever. They don’t go to the PSC. The federal government doesn’t have any involvement with them. But we have this situation impacting states up and down. I think both the federal government and the company that owns the pipeline are saying they’re hoping to get it resolved by Friday, but I cannot give you any assurances that that’s actually the case.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, I don’t know the specifics of somebody tweeting you about that, but we’re not going to allow for price gouging and we’ll take steps to stop that from happening.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, we’re looking forward to the meeting. We’ve been asking for quite some time, and then the mayor said back in December he was going to put out a detailed plan on how he was going to address violent crime. We’ve been meeting with them. Our teams have been on a weekly basis. Our whole administration met with them back in March. We didn’t see a plan. We still haven’t seen one yet. And what I said was we’re really hoping that tomorrow we’re going to see a detailed plan about what the city wants to do to address violent crime.
As far as the committee, you know, I don’t have any opposition to them starting it back up again, but I think it’s pretty naive to think having a committee have some meetings is going to be enough to stop shootings.
SPEAKER: Last question.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Come on, Charice. You have to give an extra question for the helicopter.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: There is no agreement to meet with the state’s attorney. She never even asked us. She just made a media statement saying she wanted a meeting but no one in our office has been contacted by her about a meeting. Quite frankly, given the fact that she’s under federal investigation and not really prosecuting crime, I’m not sure it would be very productive.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: You know, I’ve been pretty clear where I am on this issue. I’m very concerned about the direction of the Republican Party and the country. I quite frankly was, you know, proud of Liz Cheney and her courage to speak up and speak out the way she did. I’ve been speak out not only since January 6th, or since November, about these false claims about stolen election but I’ve also been speaking out for the past six years or so.
So I think Liz Cheney showed a lot of courage, quite frankly, reminded me of my dad when he was in Congress during the impeachment of Nixon. It wasn’t a popular thing to do, but he stood up and did the right thing. And I have a lot of respect for Cheney. Thank you.
Before we get started on our COVID update, I want to first touch on the colonial pipeline situation. On Saturday we activated a statewide response and began coordinating closely with the federal administration and local jurisdictions in response to the temporary disruption to the pipeline. Yesterday I convened a meeting of my full cabinet and received additional updates from the state’s energy and emergency planning teams.
Today I authorized Maryland transportation Secretary Greg Slater to take emergency actions to give our state the flexibility that we need in order to address any potential disruption of the state’s fuel supply. Operators of the pipeline continue to anticipate that this disruption will be short term, but our state has mobilized a multi-agency response and is prepared for all contingencies. While I know that there’s a great deal of anxiety and concern, I want people of Maryland to know that our supply chain is still working. There is certainly no need for panic buying. In fact, that would make the situation worse. Our team is continuing to closely monitor this incident, and we will keep Marylanders fully informed of any new developments.
Now, moving on, I’m pleased to report that we’re making great progress on COVID-19. Our continued recovery often a return to normal are dependent on two key factors. Getting Marylanders vaccinated and continuing to see improvements in all our key health metrics. As of today Maryland has administered more than 5.3 million COVID-19 vaccines. We have vaccinated 86 percent of all Marylanders over the age of 65 and 65.4 percent of all Marylanders over 18. Maryland is vaccinating at a faster rate than the nation and faster than most other states, and we are well on our way to reaching 70 percent of all adults vaccinated by Memorial Day weekend.
As part of our no arm left behind initiatives, we continue to have more than 3,000 points of distribution. We have now expanded to 665 pharmacies and 271 doctors’ offices. Our equity task force has now completed over 350 missions. Continue to have 13 mass vaccination sites open and fully operational all across the state. Direct scheduling remains immediately available at all of these state sites. You can also walk up or drive through at any of them with no appointment and immediately get your shot.
Thanks to the hard work of our team of more than 11,400 people who have been working around the clock to get more shots into the arms of more Marylanders, it has never been easier to find and to get a vaccine. And we encourage everyone to hasn’t done so to immediately do it.
As a result of all this progress, all our health metrics continue to show dramatic improvement across the board. Maryland’s case rate per 100,000 has dropped by 64 percent over the last 4 weeks down to only 8.5 percent, the lowest it has been since September 30th of last year. Our positivity rate has now dropped below 3 percent to only 2.74 percent from a peak of 9.43 percent in January and a high of 26.83 last year.
Our positivity rate is now at the lowest point since September 30th of last year. September 29th of last year.
COVID hospitalizations continue to significantly drop across every region of the state. They are down more than 60 percent from their winter peak a couple of months ago. And at their lowest point since November 10th of last year.
As a direct result of our incredibly fast pace of vaccination and because of the subsequent declines in hospitalizations, positivity rate, transmission rate, and case rates, today we are able to take additional actions on our return to normalcy. Effective this Saturday, we are lifting all restrictions on all outdoor entertainment, art, sports venues, including all ticketed events as well as all indoor entertainment venues, conventions, and other businesses. All restrictions will also be lifted on both indoor and outdoor dining. So effectively as of Saturday, every business in Maryland will be able to open at 100 percent with no restrictions.
The cruise terminal will be opening in Baltimore. The CDC is working directly with ports and the cruise industry representatives are preparing for their safe return to business.
The only thing that will remain in place for the time being is the indoor mask requirement, which we will be able to lift as soon as we reach the federal goal of 70 percent of adults receiving at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. President Biden set the goal of trying to get things back to normal by the 4th of July. Here in Maryland, our plan is to get everything back to normal by Memorial Day.
We are making amazing progress towards that goal. In fact, we’re just 4.6 percent of our vaccinations away from reaching it.
Our health and economic recovery continues to outpace the nation, and we’ve had 11 consecutive months of job growth in Maryland. To further accelerate our economic recovery, I have directed the Maryland Department of Labor to work in collaboration with the federal administration to begin the process of reinstating work search requirements so that we can connect more job seekers with good employment opportunities.
We truly are closer than ever to getting back to a sense of normalcy, but once again, the fastest way to get rid of our damn masks and to put this pandemic behind us once and for all is for every single eligible Marylander to get vaccinated as quickly as possible. The majority of Marylanders are now safer; however, those who are not vaccinated continue to slow our health and economic recovery efforts. They also continue to be at risk of infection, hospitalization, and death. So please, if you have not yet been vaccinated, drive through or walk through one of our state mass vaccination sites, schedule an appointment with your doctor, go to your local pharmacy, or call the state’s COVID-19 vaccination support center at 1-855-MD-GOVAX.
With nearly two-thirds of all adults in our state vaccinated, there is simply no excuse for putting off your vaccination any longer. Getting a vaccine is the right thing to do, not just for your own safety but for the safety of your friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors as well. It is the only way to get rid of the masks, put COVID in our rearview mirror, and to allow us to return to our normal lives.
The FDA has approved the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 12-15. For the past few weeks the state Health Department has been preparing for this and working on an aggressive plan to vaccinate our 12-15-year-olds. We expect final approval from the feds later today. Eligibility for adolescents in Maryland will begin tomorrow at 11 of our state’s mass vaccination sites as well as hundreds of pharmacy locations will be immediately ready to vaccinate our 12-15-year-olds.
For more details on that effort, I’m going to turn it over to Dr. Chan.
JINLENE CHAN: Thank you, Governor, and thank you Mr. Secretary.
I am pleased to be here today to talk about the pediatric vaccination effort for those 12 and up here in the state of Maryland. I know that there’s many parents across the state now who are very interested in getting their kids vaccinated, and I would like to provide some information about that. As the Governor mentioned on Monday, the federal Food and Drug Administration approved the EOA expansion for those 12-15 years old for the Pfizer vaccine. This has met the FDA’s rigorous and scientific standards for safety as well as efficacy for kids between the ages of 12-15. In clinical trials that included more than 2,000 adolescents in that anal range, the Pfizer vaccine demonstrated 100 percent efficacy in preventing COVID-19 infection. It also showed robust antibody responses in that age group, which means that their immune system was responsive to the vaccine in similar ways to young adults and also teenagers 16-17 for whom Pfizer was already approved.
It also showed that the vaccine was well tolerated with similar side effects as we have heard and seen among adults and young adults, including pain at the site of injection, fatigue, headache, sometimes a low-grade fever or muscle aches, but those usually resolve within 2-3 days.
Earlier this afternoon, the CDC’s advisory committee on immunization practices met to discuss in detail the data on those safety and efficacy for the Pfizer vaccine. What they did after considerable discussion and after presentation of the detailed data is that they did vote to recommend that the Pfizer vaccine be approved for use in children 12-15 years of age, and more detailed recommendations from their meeting will be issued at a later point. So these are recommendations that will be made to CDC.
So in preparation for this, here in the state of Maryland we have been working for weeks to provide vaccines for children in this age group, and once the CDC issues its final approval, which we anticipate this evening, families can take their adolescent to locations around the state where Pfizer vaccine is already offered. To start, as the Governor has mentioned, we have 11 state-run mass vaccination sites that have the Pfizer vaccine, and about 300 pharmacies as well as locations in local Health Departments and in hospital-based clinics that will be available on our COVID vax website.
We’ve been working closely with our local health officers in every county, with the Maryland academy of pediatrics as well as academy of family physicians here in the state to work on expanding locations in physician practices where 12-15-year-olds can get vaccinated in the coming weeks. This will include more pediatricians and other providers that are willing to vaccinate minors. And we know that this is important because families have said time and again that they would want to get vaccines at their pediatrician offices so that’s why we are working actively to make sure these providers have as soon as possible availability of Pfizer vaccine for their patients.
At many of these sites, it is important to note, including at the state mass vaccination sites, minors will need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian in order to be vaccinated. We encourage families to go to our vaccine finder website at COVIDvax.maryland.gov to look for a location that has Pfizer vaccine. This website has been newly updated with a new search function to allow families to search specifically for locations that are able to vaccinate individuals 12 and up.
So an important question is why vaccinate? Why vaccinate young kids? You know, as the Governor said, and if you look at our metrics, this vaccine and the other lifesaving vaccines, including from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are part of our state’s toolbox to help us turn the corner on COVID-19. And especially as we race now against the ongoing spread of these new variants that are more infectious, it is more important than ever to get everyone vaccinated, and now we can vaccinate adolescents 12-15.
The proportion as we have seen even here in Maryland of children and teens who are getting infected with COVID-19 has been increasing, and this has increased because, in part at least, of how well we have done in vaccinating adults. So now our attention shifts so that we can focus on vaccinating younger children. Vaccines can protect teens against infections and potential complications from COVID-19, and, importantly, also decreases the chance that they could spread the infection to others.
Of course I understand that this is a personal decision for families and for parents, and I encourage families to ask questions and continue to seek out information from trusted sources, especially your pediatricians and your family doctors.
But I have to say, I am not just a physician. I am also a parent. And my son falls into this age category. And so we have been having conversations with him about getting vaccinated and what the importance of it is, and what to expect and why it is important for him so that he can get back to some of the activities that he missed out on last year, like summer camps and hanging out with friends and other activities. So this is really what we are vaccinating for, to get back to a normal that our kid and our families deserve.
So once the CDC provides its formal approval, we will make additional announcements to parents, providers, and clinicians, so thank you so much, and I’m happy to take questions.
I’ll turn it back to you, Governor.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Let’s give the hard ones to you.
With that, we would be happy…
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: So we have been following the other states and talk with other governors about this. I’ve certainly heard from business owners not just in Ocean City but all across the state, particularly in the hospitality, restaurant business, about the difficulty in getting people back, which is precisely why we were trying to get the work search requirement back in. It’s not just anecdotal. There’s no question there are some people that have made the decision to stay home and collect unemployment rather than returning to work. We hear that every day. So we think the step we’re taking is probably the right one. There are some people who really have been trying to find work and do need those benefits, and Maryland’s cost of living is higher than a lot of other states. So we’re not as impacted. Our unemployment is very low and 11 months of straight job growth, we’re not as directly impacted. At this point we think we’re taking the steps we need to take.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Most of the experts are now talking about that. It was President Biden who set that goal, not me. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Gottlieb, and others are saying we should be lifting the mask rule now. We think we found the right spot. Our numbers are, as I mentioned, much lower than they’ve been all year. Hitting our lows of last year. Hospitalizations, everything is dropping. And we believe we’re taking the prudent steps. We’re not taking it today because we want to continue to make a little more progress.
SPEAKER: Can you explain which of the 11 state-run mass vax sites, which ones are offering Pfizer? And is the FEMA one offering Pfizer?
JINLENE CHAN: That’s available on our website. I believe the FEMA one does have Pfizer vaccine, the one in Greenbelt. So I would have to — I don’t have the list in front of me, but I’m happy to provide that. We want to make that available. But our mass vaccination sites are located on the COVIDvax.maryland.gov, and on that website, it lists each mass vaccination site and which vaccine they provide.
SPEAKER: May I just follow up on that? I know that local health officers have been telling people they don’t keep permission to give the Pfizer. So once a switch is flipped, scheduling in the computer, but could local entities or pharmacies give Pfizer tonight once it is signed off?
JINLENE CHAN: Potentially. I mean, many of the vaccination clinics are already planned, and so we actually did work with our health officers to allow scheduling to happen, for example, ahead of time. But most local Health Departments and others are planning for vaccines potentially starting tomorrow.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Dr. Chan probably has a better answer.
(Question off mic).
JINLENE CHAN: No, I think what the FDA and the CDC weighed is what is the risk benefit. And as we look at COVID-19, you know, the impact of cases, so getting sick is one thing. Getting hospitalized, you know that individuals who are older of course are at the highest risk of dying. But it doesn’t mean that it’s zero risk for the younger adults and for kids as well. And so for me, it’s about protecting my child. But also protecting the people who might be around him. You know, whether it’s other adults and other teachers, people who might not be able to get vaccinated. And there are those who can’t.
So it’s the same issue with any vaccination. But what we’re looking to do is protect the person and also protect the people around him.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: It’s really not much of a change. It’s still a tiered project that happens in various segments. And the bridge has always been the top priority. We’ve reached an accord with Governor Northam, the accord that connects the two states. It’s where the biggest bottleneck is, but our intention is to move forward. It all has to get fixed or it’s not going to do much to solve the traffic. But we just want to move forward with the bridge and move on with the next steps.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, I would love to see Camden Yards get filled up. Even when there was no pandemic, we had a hard time filling it up. Since we’re the landlord, we would love to get that extra rent money. But we would love to see it. These are decisions — because we are authorizing them to be able to do it doesn’t mean each business is going to make that decision. You know, major league baseball and the Orioles will make their own decisions about what to do, but I think they’re going to want to increase capacity definitely, and I’ve had discussions with both the Ravens and the Washington Football Team. They’re both anxious to be at 100 percent in the fall and they should be able to do it.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We authorized the Preakness to go to 50 percent capacity many months ago and they only chose to go to 10 percent. I don’t think there’s going to be any change by Saturday. But next year hopefully we’ll have it full again.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Actually, we have about 4 percent in Maryland which is much better than most of the other states that are impacted. I think Georgia is at 19 percent. So it’s about 500 percent worse. But we do have a few stations that are 4 percent that are out of gas primarily because of people, you know, going and filling up their tanks and filling up gas cans because they were under the impression that everybody was running out of gas. We’re in a much better situation for a number of reasons, but you know, the port of Baltimore, we bring a heck of a lot of our oil in through there and it goes on trucks and it’s not impacted by the pipeline.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: That’s a great question. We’ve been trying to get answers and I’m not sure anyone knows the answers. This is an unregulated industry. It’s a privately owned pipeline. We have no jurisdiction over them whatsoever. They don’t go to the PSC. The federal government doesn’t have any involvement with them. But we have this situation impacting states up and down. I think both the federal government and the company that owns the pipeline are saying they’re hoping to get it resolved by Friday, but I cannot give you any assurances that that’s actually the case.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, I don’t know the specifics of somebody tweeting you about that, but we’re not going to allow for price gouging and we’ll take steps to stop that from happening.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, we’re looking forward to the meeting. We’ve been asking for quite some time, and then the mayor said back in December he was going to put out a detailed plan on how he was going to address violent crime. We’ve been meeting with them. Our teams have been on a weekly basis. Our whole administration met with them back in March. We didn’t see a plan. We still haven’t seen one yet. And what I said was we’re really hoping that tomorrow we’re going to see a detailed plan about what the city wants to do to address violent crime.
As far as the committee, you know, I don’t have any opposition to them starting it back up again, but I think it’s pretty naive to think having a committee have some meetings is going to be enough to stop shootings.
SPEAKER: Last question.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Come on, Charice. You have to give an extra question for the helicopter.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: There is no agreement to meet with the state’s attorney. She never even asked us. She just made a media statement saying she wanted a meeting but no one in our office has been contacted by her about a meeting. Quite frankly, given the fact that she’s under federal investigation and not really prosecuting crime, I’m not sure it would be very productive.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: You know, I’ve been pretty clear where I am on this issue. I’m very concerned about the direction of the Republican Party and the country. I quite frankly was, you know, proud of Liz Cheney and her courage to speak up and speak out the way she did. I’ve been speak out not only since January 6th, or since November, about these false claims about stolen election but I’ve also been speaking out for the past six years or so.
So I think Liz Cheney showed a lot of courage, quite frankly, reminded me of my dad when he was in Congress during the impeachment of Nixon. It wasn’t a popular thing to do, but he stood up and did the right thing. And I have a lot of respect for Cheney. Thank you.