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(Interviewer) In your confirmation hearing, you said that the 
greatest danger the military has to counter,

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today, is COVID-19. Now that you've had a few weeks -- 
I know it's only, it really has only been a few

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weeks -- to adjust, what's your impression of the 
effort? How do you think the military is doing

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with this, and what more needs to be done?
 (Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks): Sure, I think the military is doing a phenomenal job.

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I take a weekly meeting, for instance, with 
leadership on this, and, so, just yesterday

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hearing from the U.S. Northcom commander, hearing 
from the National Guard Bureau chief about what

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our military is doing out with the American 
public, delivering vaccines in support of FEMA,

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in support of state and other entities. Of 
course, what the effort that we have with

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HHS with regard to vaccine distribution itself 
such a, a tremendous, phenomenal effort underway

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and then with regard to our own workforce starting 
to really make sure we're getting shots in arms

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out into even austere environments, folks who are 
deployed in, you know, Centcom's theater, Africom's

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theater, et cetera, we're making real, real progress 
and real movement. We have our own self-interest in

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that. We, there, this isn't just a 'nice to do.' 
We need our own workforce to be, in order for

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it to be ready, it needs to get vaccinated, 
and it needs to have testing protocols. And

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we've seen a tremendous drop -- just here 
in the Pentagon -- in the rates of COVID

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cases from January to February, so we know these 
efforts are paying off. We know we're protecting

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our long-term readiness in our workforce. Now, 
it's about making sure that we help stand up

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civilian capacity that can endure over the 
long term. We're here for the surge, if you will.

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We know we have to build out that civilian 
capacity, and we want to make sure we help do that.

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(Interviewer) Did you get the vaccination? 
(Hicks) I did. I've been vaccinated. We did a photo of me being vaccinated

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on my second shot so that we could demonstrate, you 
know, there's no, people shouldn't be afraid

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of the vaccination, and, really, to the extent that 
they're in an eligible group, we hope that they're

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going out there and getting vaccinated; and I'll 
just also say we're trying to make sure, as we move

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now into a great period of greater supply, that 
we have approaches to bring vaccine, to make it

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easier for people to get vaccinated, bring vaccines 
closer to the workforce. 

(Interviewer) I thought yesterday when

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John Kirby was speaking he said we had vaccinated 
50,000 people just the day before, and, and it hit

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500,000 Americans, and that's less 
than a month. I mean, that's an incredible,

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that's an incredible effort right there. 
(Hicks) No, that's exactly right. The numbers are are all moving in

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the right direction. We're very worried, of course, 
about the variants, the UK variant, for instance,

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and the speed of spread that we'll see 
from that. So, I think, as Dr. Fauci and

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others have said, it's a it's a race between 
vaccination and variants, and that's why masking,

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social distancing, et cetera, those are all so 
important even as we're getting vaccines out there.