Appearing Monday on MSNBC, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said he would support a coronavirus vaccine mandate for school-aged children as part of an effort to combat the pandemic.
A transcript is as follows:
HALLIE JACKSON: We keep hearing from officials in the administration, yourself and others, that confident about a vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 this fall. Can you say with some level of confidence that you think their will be that vaccine available before Halloween?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: You’r trying to get me in trouble by pinning that date on me.
JACKSON: I’m not, I’m asking your level of confidence before Halloween.
DR. FAUCI: I think there’s a really good chance it will be before Halloween.
JACKSON: Okay, and you’re pretty confident about that?
DR. FAUCI: I believe there’s a reasonably good chance that it will be.
[…]
JACKSON: Would you support schools mandating the COVID vaccine for kids?
DR. FAUCI: You know, that’s an interesting question. I know there’s a lot of pushback against mandates, but I think we are in such an emergency situation with the 150,000 cases that we’re having each day. […] We need to put it into the context of what has gone on prior to Covid-19. People think that having children be required to get vaccination is a very novel thing. It isn’t. Right now, if you want to go to many schools, most public schools, you’ve got to be vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis.
So it’s nothing new. When you hear, “would I be in favor of mandating?” In fact, I would be. But that gets taken out of context like I’m trying to impose some novel, new restriction on somebody, of taking away their rights. Look at what’s been going on for decades in schools — the requirement for vaccination.
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