When you report out on the people, the percentage of people who are eligible to receive vaccine, who've been vaccinated, that's great news, but we have a whole population under the age of 12 who are not able to be vaccinated. And so, we really, from a public health perspective need to be looking at the percent of the total population that has been vaccinated in the United States.

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The spread is fueled by unvaccinated people but we know that there can be breakthrough infections. And as more people are vaccinated, you're going to see more breakthrough infections, and all of that then contributes to the increase in cases that I think we're seeing everywhere. So, I know communities across the country are struggling now with which public health interventions to implement based on the rising cases, and it seems like a cut and dry decision but we've got communities that are incredibly fatigued and an economy that is trying to get back to levels, restaurants that are trying to survive and stay open. So, all of those factors, I think, go into trying to balance out community by community the levels of intervention you do and the payoff you get from those interventions in terms of reducing the risk and reducing the spread. And it's going to be different from state to state and community to community based on transmission levels.

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Public health tools, these basic tools of communicable disease control have been around for decades – masking, physical distancing, vaccine. They work, they are tried and true. We just have to be judicious in how we implement them in ways that will get us the best outcome for our communities.

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