U.S. high school students should be able to get vaccinated against COVID-19 before the fall, and younger students are likely to get vaccinated in early 2022, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of infectious diseases in the United States.
“We anticipate that high school students will likely be able to get vaccinated in the fall, maybe not the first day, but certainly in the early fall,” Fauci told CBS.
He said primary school children would likely be ready to receive vaccines in the first quarter of next year once safety studies are completed.
Currently, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are only approved for those over the age of 18, while the Pfizer shot is allowed for 16-year-olds.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said high school students may be eligible to receive shots before the fall, and younger students are likely to receive vaccines in early 2022
A student from Alexandria, Virginia, looks at a tablet next to classmates at a desk surrounded by plastic protection during a day of face-to-face hybrid learning
As additional studies are conducted, vaccines are expected to be eliminated for younger children, if they are shown to be safe and effective for children.
In most states, decisions about whether schools should be open are being made locally. Iowa, Arkansas, Texas, and Florida have ordered all of their schools to remain open, and West Virginia requires elementary schools to take classes.
Fauci also said he expected the CDC to issue relaxed guidelines for people who have already been vaccinated over the next two days, but urged continued monitoring of mitigation measures for more than 80 percent of Americans who they are still waiting for shots.
Let’s go in the right direction. We just need to stay a little longer, ”said Fauci.
“We want these virus mortality levels to be very, very low, and then we will have a much easier time to safely withdraw” from the mitigation measures.
The United States now vaccinates an average of 2.1 million people a day, but gains over the virus over the past month have shown signs of decline.
Nationally, the United States reported a 3% drop in new COVID-19 cases last week, a much smaller drop than in the previous six weeks.
According to a Reuters analysis, new cases fell to 25 percent the week ended Feb. 7 and 23 percent the week ended Feb. 21, before last week’s withdrawal.
The fall in cases had begun to reach heights of 60,000 to 70,000 new infections a day, which Fauci said was not acceptable.
He noted the need to continue the mandates of masks and other mitigation measures to prevent a resurgence as new variants emerge.
A new variant spread across the New York City area and was “quite vigorous” in its ability to spread and somewhat eluded the protection offered by monoclonal antibodies and vaccines, he said.
Signs calling for the reopening of Los Angeles schools are shown by people passing vehicles during an “Open Schools Now” rally by caravan last month
A student raises his hand to ask a question in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 2nd
“One of the things I think we should point out, that with each passing day, we keep the lid on things getting better and better, because now we put at least two million vaccinations in people’s arms every day.” He said.
“And as the days and weeks go by, you have more and more protection, not just from the people, but from the community. So we’re going in the right direction. We just need to stay there for a while longer.
Fauci said supply of vaccines would “increase dramatically” in the coming weeks as production increases.
The United States has administered 90,351,750 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Sunday morning and has distributed 116,363,405 doses, according to the CDC.
The agency said 58,873,710 people had received one or more doses, while 30,686,881 people have received the second dose as of Sunday.
A total of 7,389,102 doses of vaccine have been administered in long-term care centers, according to the agency.