Saundra Murphys third grade students participate in silent reading at the start of class on the first day of class at Weaverville Elementary School on Monday, August 17, 2020 in Weaverville, CA.
Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Primary school children are likely to get Covid-19 vaccinations early next year, said Dr. Anthony Fauci on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday advance.
Fauci, the government’s leading epidemiologist, said vaccine safety studies for younger children are ongoing.
“If you realistically project when we will be able to get enough data to say that elementary school children can be vaccinated, I would think that this would be the end of the year at the earliest and very likely the first quarter of 2022 “said Fauci.
Federal regulators have approved three Covid-19 vaccines to fight the pandemic. Two vaccines made by Johnson & Johnson and Moderna are approved for adults aged 18 and over.
The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine can be given to people aged 16 and over, although currently eligibility for young people is strictly limited to those who meet certain criteria, e.g. B. the underlying diseases.
Vaccinating children could help states and communities open schools and safely return to teaching in person. Fewer children than adults may have Covid-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but they can still contract the virus, become seriously ill, and pass it on to others.
Fauci said students can likely get vaccines early in the fall school year.
“I’m not sure if it’s exactly the first day the school opens, but it’s pretty close,” he said.
According to CDC data, more than 72 million vaccine doses have been administered in the US to date. About one in five adults has received at least one dose and about one in ten adults has received two.
Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine was approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration on Saturday and is designed to expedite the campaign to vaccinate every American. The federal government plans to hand out four million cans next week.
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