united states. about 140,000 cases per day. although things are a lot better, there s still a lot of virus around. doctor, thank you very much. my pleasure. now i want to bring in washington governor jay inslee who announced just today he is ending his state s indoor mask mandate including in schools and will do that on march 21st. governor, good evening. thank you for joining us. appreciate it. you bet. so your mask mandate is one of the few left in the country. you are ending it on march 21st in places like schools, bars, restaurants, and grocery stores. that is over a month away. tell us why that is the right time to do it. well, it is based on the data and science and we have been very successful saving tens of thousands of lives by making decisions based on data and science. that has been successful because we have done common sense things
underlying conditions are already fully vaccinated, we are going to see a much lower death rate compared to the case rate. so vaccines are saving tens of thousands of lives. but basically, bottom line, you re about 100 times more likely to be killed by this virus if you don t get vaccinated. i want to come back to the vaccination. you talk about things could get worse as we look. it s largely in the south, the southeast part of the country will the vaccine rate is behind the national average. 39%, 34%. 35% across georgia, mississippi. those are also the places that go back to school earlier in the season. typically. i want you to listen to dr. francis clolens who says it s true. when children get covid, they tend not to get severe symptoms. he says there are sadly tough exceptions. it s clear that this variant is capable of causing serious illness in children. you have heard those stories coming out of louisiana
law making juneteenth a federal holiday, and this weekend folks in communities across the country are going to be canvassing and hosting events to encourage their families, friends, and neighbors to get vaccinated. the more we close the racial gap in vaccination rates, the more lives we ll save. now as our vaccination program is saving tens of thousands of lives. with that count growing each day, it s also allowing millions of americans to get back to living their lives. grandparents hugging their kids, kids back to school and getting ready for the summer, people going out to restaurants and traveling, businesses are reopening. folks, we re heading into a very different summer compared to last year. a bright summer. a summer of joy. but as i promised you from the
yesterday i signed a bill into law making juneteenth a federal holiday. this weekend folks in communities across the country will be canvasses and hosting events to encourage families, friends and neighbors to get vaccinated. the more we close the racial gap in vaccination rates, the more lives we ll save. as our vaccination program is saving tens of thousands of lives. with that count growing each day, it s allowing millions of americans to getting back to living their lives. grandparents hugging their kids, kids back to school and getting ready for the summer. people going out in restaurants and traveling. businesses are reopening. folks, we re heading into a very different summer compared to last year. a bright summer.
law making juneteenth a federal holiday, and this weekend, folks in communities across the country are going to be canvassing and hosting events to encourage their family, friends and neighbors to get vaccinated. the more we close the racial gap in vaccination rates, the more lives we ll save. now, as our vaccination program is saving tens of thousands of lives. with that count growing each day, it s also allowing millions of americans to get back to living their lives. grandparents hugging their kids. kids back to school and getting ready for the summer. people going out to restaurants and traveling. businesses are reopening. folks, we re heading into a very different summer compared to last year, a bright summer. hopefully a summer of joy.