Dr. Fauci says he doesn't understand parents who have not vaccinated their kids: 'What are you waiting for? Protect your children'
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Hilary Brueck
Nov 19, 2021, 23:33 IST
Dr. Anthony Fauci (left) directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 7 year old Kye'Vontay Jordan (right) was one of the first kids ages 5-11 to receive a COVID-19 shot in Washington DC.Tom Williams-CQ Roll Call via Getty Images / Children’s National Hospital
Dr. Anthony Fauci doesn't think there's any reason to wait to vaccinate 5-11 year olds.
"There have been clinical trials that are very, very clear to show that the vaccine is highly effective and very safe," Fauci said.
"What are they waiting for? The infection is here now," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Insider over the phone. "Protect your children."
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COVID-19 is now a leading cause of death for kids in the US
Though the coronavirus is typically milder in children than it is in adults, it isn't always.
"The clinical trial shows that it's highly effective in preventing serious disease and infection and kids," Fauci said. "It's 91% effective in preventing symptomatic disease."
During the trial, 16 of the 750 children injected with placebo (fake) shots got COVID-19, while only 3 of the 1,518 who were fully vaccinated did.
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Dr. Stanley Plotkin, one of the world's preeminent vaccine experts, told Insider that he "could understand" a parent deciding to wait until the vaccine is fully approved, and more safety data has been compiled by the FDA.
"I wouldn't consider that attitude to be crazy," he said.
"If you postpone that choice, it means that your child remains susceptible and could be infected," Plotkin said. "We can either not vaccinate and let the disease spread and kill whoever's going to be killed and sort of shrug our shoulders and say, 'well, that's too bad.' Or we can try to prevent disease, by vaccinating everyone who is susceptible."
Fauci, too, recognizes that mandating COVID-19 vaccines for all schoolkids will likely require a full FDA approval first, as a kind of final vote of confidence in the vaccine. Still, scientists at the FDA stress that the safety database for Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for kids 5-11 is already just as robust as other databases that have supported the full approval of vaccines for other infectious diseases in the same age group.
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"Why would any parent want to have their child vulnerable to symptomatic disease when in fact, there have been clinical trials that are very, very clear to show that the vaccine is highly effective and very safe?" Fauci said.
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