The nation’s top infectious disease expert says vaccine mandates work and they’ll help get more people vaccinated against Covid-19, reports CNN.
Plenty of Vaccination
About a quarter of the eligible US population remains unvaccinated against coronavirus and the rate of people getting booster shots is now outpacing the rate of people getting their first doses.
Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday that the federal government is trying to persuade people to get vaccinated on their own, but some may need to be required.
“We’ve been trying very hard,” Fauci said.
Fauci said he and fellow health officials don’t like to tell people what they need to do regarding vaccines.
“But we know that mandates work,” he said.
The best way for the US to assure that a decline in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths will continue is to get “a lot more” people vaccinated, he added.
No New Cases
The number of Americans getting a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine has jumped to about 1 million a day, according to data this past week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New cases are declining, with about 93,814 infections reported each day this past week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
But there is some bad news: The highly contagious Delta variant is not done.
Most of them are in colder states: Montana, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan, and Vermont.
“I think we have a couple of months to go,” Gottlieb said
“I think some families will have to exercise more caution than others,” Gottlieb said, especially those with children who might be too young to get vaccinated.
The Halloween Scenario
Outdoor trick-or-treating may be one of the safer holiday activities this season — but it’s important not to be careless, doctors say.
“If you live in an area with individual houses or townhomes, I think it’s probably … the low risk to knock on people’s doors and trick-or-treat,” CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen said.
“Just make sure not to step inside someone’s house,” CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen said.
“I’d encourage parents not to enter other people’s apartment buildings and instead look for activities in a neighboring park or other primarily outdoor settings.”
And this is not a good year for indoor Halloween parties if children are unmasked and unvaccinated, said Dr. Megan Ranney, associate dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University.
Pre-schooler’s Vaccination
While children may be less likely to suffer severe illness or death from Covid-19 compared to adults, they aren’t immune to serious effects.
The FDA is considering a request from Pfizer to authorize its Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The dosage would be one-third the amount used by teens and adults.
But just like with adults getting the Pfizer vaccine, they wouldn’t be fully vaccinated until two weeks after their second dose.
“I think that it’s more likely that it slips into the first quarter of next year at the very least, but not too far into next year.”
Gottlieb told CBS he plans to vaccinate his young daughters.
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Source: CNN
