Expect vaccine decision for children in fall: Fauci
Americans can expect a decision on COVID vaccines for children in the fall, the country’s top infectious disease expert said on Sunday.
Regulators should have enough data in the coming weeks to decide whether to authorize shots for kids ages 5 to 11, Dr. Anthony Fauci told “This Week.”
“Sometime in the next few weeks, as we get into October, we’ll be able to see the vaccines for children get enough data to be presented for safety and immunogenicity,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized vaccinations for those 12 and older. Around the country, Los Angeles schools have announced a vaccine requirement for eligible students 12 and up while other cities, including the Big Apple, are so far limiting vaccine requirements to teachers and staff.
Fauci addressed the Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to reject a plan to offer Pfizer booster shots to the general population. Instead, it recommended third jabs for those 65 and older, along with vulnerable people.
The White House previously announced a Sept. 20 target date for launching widespread booster shots.
“I don’t think they made a mistake,” Fauci told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I am 80, and I’m an elderly person — certainly eligible. I will certainly get a booster.”
Americans can expect wider authorization of booster shots in the coming weeks, according to Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.
“I will be surprised if boosters are not recommended for people under 65 going forward in the next few weeks,” he told “Fox News Sunday.”
While new cases and hospitalizations are slowly declining around the country, the death toll continues to mount at a grim pace. Almost 2,000 COVID deaths per day are being reported.
Thirty-one New Yorkers died on Saturday, bringing the state’s death toll to 44,165, according to Gov. Hochul’s office. Three of those fatalities were in Brooklyn, two in Queens and one each in the Bronx and Manhattan.
“COVID-19 remains a threat to New Yorkers across the state, and it’s critical that we take decisive action to vaccinate more people and slow the spread,” Hochul said in a statement.
Meanwhile, New York City is bracing for the United Nations General Assembly, a massive confab bringing dignitaries from around the world and the potential for a large-scale spreading of the virus, according to Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the UN.
“We are concerned about the UN event being a super-spreader event, and that we need to take all measures to ensure that it does not become” one, she said Friday.
The city told UN officials that a mandate requiring people to show proof of vaccination at most indoor activities applies to the General Assembly.
The United Nations says it’s relying on the “honor system” for compliance, and Russia’s ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia decried the mandate.
“If the Russian ambassador is against it, I’m for it,” Mayor de Blasio said last week.