 Obviously in these challenging times in which we're living, it's an honor to have the Secretary join us today as I was telling my daughter who are future deltas, future deltas, as a mother with dictate. We weren't just seeing a friend today. We weren't just seeing a Secretary Fudge today. We're seeing someone, frankly, who's in a lot of succession to the President of the United States. It's that important to the President that he sent Secretary Fudge here, and certainly I know she wouldn't tour this country without coming to the Sixth Congressional District, led by our Majority Whip, Jim Clyburn. I'm glad to be here. Obviously this amazing business, Regal Lounge with the Phillips family, all the incredible work that they're doing here in this community, charitable work and building an amazing business in the wake of a pandemic. But glad to be here with the team from DHEC as well, taking some very bold stands as of late pushing all of us towards what we know to be our one true north, the preservation of human life, in particular some recent stances and aggressive stances pushing for the protection of our children, who by definition by age and elementary and middle school cannot be vaccinated as many of us, probably all of us here, have indeed been. We have an important discussion before the Supreme Court tomorrow, advancing the interests of these babies and their families. Today's push today is simply to encourage people to take advantage of the marvels of modern medicine and get vaccinated. If in fact we do that we can put this pandemic in our review mirror and all of us move forward together. So I'm not sure what the run of show is here, but I'll give it to the whip and maybe you can have the Secretary then we have Dr. Simmer. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor for hosting us here. Thanks for inviting my longtime friend and colleague, Margie Fudge, who currently serves as Secretary of Housing Urban Development. As many of you know, I was born and raised in the post-mage. My father was a fundamentalist minister who said to us, my two brothers and me very often, you pray for good health and strength. And then you get up off your knees and you go to work. And I grew up believing that very strongly and I still believe that. And I find it insulting, insulting to all of the scientists, the research, the investments that we make here at this university in turning people into scientists, in making doctors. And then all of a sudden we decide that all of this investment was for no. Your science is just cracker rate. We've made investments in people to tell us. To get the training that's necessary to keep us focused on where we ought to be, especially when it comes to health. And I find it really almost criminal for adults to reject the science and run the risk of infesting their parents and their children and grandchildren. We must get beyond this foolishness and get everybody vaccinated. When I was growing up over in Sumter, I remember Polio. Polio visited my neighborhood twice, leaving one of my playmates dead and another one crippled for life. But along came two scientists, Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, who discovered some secrets. And because of their research, it just so happens that Albert Sabin finished out his life and his life's work at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. And they, because of their research, we live today with no fear of Polio. I mean, we fear it every day as a child, but we don't anymore because of the research of scientists. And here we are today faced with a similar circumstance. And we are going to say to the scientists, you don't know what you're talking about. Our investments in you were for naught. And we're not going to listen to you when it comes to preserving the integrity of the life and liberty of our children and grandchildren. That, to me, is foolishness. And that's the best I can say in the like company. And with that, I'm pleased to yield the mic to my longtime friend, one who I know believes in science. And I know because every evening in Washington, when she was in the Congress, we had dinner together every evening. And we would talk about a whole lot of stuff. But when it came to finding out what the research said, I would ask Marsha, who is steeped in this work. And it was committed to this work. And I thank her for being here with us today, and I yield to Marsha Fudge. Thank you, Mr. Weppin. Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank the owners of this establishment, the owners of Regal Lounge. Thank you for having us today. You know, I sit back often and I think about how much I care about people in this country, all people. I'm a patriot. I'm a person who loves my country. Those people who would tell you not to get a shot and don't love their country, they really don't. Oh, they're telling me they can't hear me. Thank you. But I am a patriot, and I do love all people. But let me tell you who I love as well is young people and people who look like me. That is why I'm in South Carolina today, to talk to young people and people who look like me. I never thought in my life I'd be able to save somebody's life, especially with three words, get the vaccine, get the shot. Just three words. I can save thousands and thousands of people's lives just by saying get the shot. I speak in schools an awful lot, and one of the things that I tell young people all the time is be leaders and not followers. And the people who are listening to what they see on Facebook or Twitter, they are followers. We need our young people to be leaders. To step out and say I am going to step up and take care of my family, of my grandparents and my parents and my friends. You know, we are at a particular risk because we are frontline workers. We are essential workers. We live in dense communities. We have to do everything we can because this disease has hit us harder than anyone else. It's just like everything else. They say when America gets a cold, black folk get pneumonia. We got pneumonia, y'all. Get your shot. I want to yield a microphone to Dr. Cameron Webb, who is a senior policy advisor for COVID-19 equity. With the COVID-19, White House COVID-19 response team. Dr. Webb is an impressive young man. As my granddad, you might say you got more degrees than a thermostat. But, Cameron, all yours. First, thank you, Mayor Benjamin with Plyburn, Secretary Fudge. As a member of the White House COVID-19 response team, we do a lot of thinking about where and how to reach people. In the midst of this pandemic. And we know this is a really critical juncture, a critical moment, especially in the setting of this Delta variant. It's causing so many more people to get sick. But I want to go back to June 2nd when President Biden announced that we were going to have a month of action. And where this idea for shots at the shop was conceived and announced. Because barber shops are no ordinary space as any good barber or stylist can tell you. These are real key points, spaces in the community where conversations happen. Where people can talk with candor about the issues that matter most. About who the best basketball player of all time is or whether or not this virus is going to ravage our communities. And I think that enlisting barbers and stylists into this effort has been critical. We have over 1,000 shops around the country who are a part of the shops at the shop initiative. In Columbia, South Carolina, we have 16. And we're really excited to be here with Ware Lounge today because this is exactly what the work looks like. It looks like being on the ground in spaces with community, having the conversations that matter. And those conversations don't just happen at press conferences or when health leaders are speaking, they happen in community. They happen person to person, family member to family member, barber to patron. And so with that, we're so grateful that Ware Lounge would open their space to have this vaccination effort today to bring people, to bring community out. But we can't let this conversation end with events like this today. This effort has to continue forward. Our future depends on it. And we're so grateful you all came out today. Thank you, Nile. You're back to Mayor Bender. Thank you, Dr. Webb. Again, I mentioned the great leadership at DHEC. We're joined by Dr. Linda Bell, a state epidemiologist, and also Monica Taylor earlier in the discussion. Today we're so fortunate now to be joined by Dr. Edward Simmer, the Director at the Department of Health and Environmental Control. Dr. Brandon Traxler has been doing great work advocating at DHEC for the last, it seems like, eternity. For the last several years as we work our way through this pandemic. And also Keith Frost, who I think runs the Incident Command at DHEC for COVID-19 response. Dr. Simmer. Thank you, Mayor. Afternoon, everyone. Well, first, let me just say how much we appreciate Secretary Fudge, Representative Clyburn, Dr. Webb, for joining us here this afternoon. For outstanding people like this here, encouraging folks to get vaccinated, to do the right thing is just incredible. Representative Clyburn has sponsored a number of vaccination events throughout his district. There's a lot of people in South Carolina who are vaccinated because of him, and we greatly appreciate that. We have a great relationship with the federal government, Secretary Fudge. Your agency has been incredibly helpful, so thank you for that. And of course, we know Columbia has been a model of how to handle a pandemic. Thanks to Mayor Benjamin, his team, the council here. We are in much better shape because of the work being done here in the city of Columbia, which is really a model, I think, for the rest of the state. And of course, Dr. Webb, who has repeatedly put out science-based information, educated the folks that we need to get to, to convince them to get vaccinated so we can defeat this terrible disease. We all know the numbers, right? We've got about 50% fully vaccinated, a little bit less than South Carolina. That's way less than we need to be. We especially need to be focusing on our children, the folks who are 12 to 19. Especially as school has started, we've seen any number of schools have to go virtual, have literally thousands of students quarantined and missing that educational opportunity, so desperately need. So this is a real public health crisis. In my agency, my team is very focused on making sure that we give every South Carolinian access to the vaccine, whether it's with a mobile unit like this one. Doing something like these great folks here at Regal are doing, making the vaccine available to people and where they normally come to, where they feel comfortable, where they can ask questions about the vaccine. We could not do it without all these great partners and we very much appreciate their support because we have to. We have no choice. We have to defeat COVID and we're going to do that by working with our partners, convincing folks that this vaccine is the right thing to do. We have three effective, safe vaccines now. We have the Pfizer vaccine that's been fully approved for those 16 and over and approved also for those 12 to 15. We need to get our children vaccinated. We need to get our adults vaccinated to make South Carolina a safe, prosperous place to live for all of our citizens. Working together, we will do that. Whether that's doing vaccinations, getting our children to wear masks in school, which as you know, our agency has taken a strong position on that. And we think that's very, very important to stopping the spread of this terrible disease. And together, we will defeat COVID. We will get South Carolina back on its feet and moving forward with the help of all of our great federal partners, our private partners, and of course the great team I have at DHAC. With that, let me introduce Dr. Brandon Traxler, our public health officer. Welcome to South Carolina. Welcome to Columbia. Welcome home to some of you. And thank you so much to to Landry and China for of Regal Lounge for having this event. And thank you to my pharmacy and optical for doing the vaccinations here. This really is an outstanding event. When I first got here today, they were giving some vaccines. I got the chance to watch a couple of people come in and go through the process and it really was very smooth, very quick, very, very painless, just a very small, tiny prick. And I really want to say, but that small prick, you are saving lives. So for each of you that's out there, whatever reason it is that you're not getting vaccinated, whether it's just not convenient, you're scared of it, you don't like needles, I understand. It's okay. This vaccine is safe, it's effective, and it is how we're going to save lives. It's the easiest 15 minutes you can do to save a life, honestly, and you can save multiple by getting vaccinated. So please come out here. I think they're going on for another couple of hours today. If you can't come today, find another vaccine event. If you go to our Vax locator on our DHEC website, you can find the place where the vaccine is closest to you. Get vaccinated, especially teenagers and young adults, because we all want to get rid of our masks, go back to our normal lives and save other people's lives as well as our own. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and do any questions. I do want to recognize the presence of State Representative Annie McDaniel and also State Representative Marvin Penn-Darvis who are here with us as well. Thank them for their leadership and I know State Representative Patricia Hennigan, the Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, would have been here with us as well without regard to a previous conflict.