Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday predicted that vaccines for the Chinese coronavirus will be available for babies and toddlers in the first quarter of 2022, adding, “Yeah, we do want to be vaccinating the children,” despite the fact that the child mortality rate for the virus is 0.00 percent – 0.03 percent.
Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan asked Fauci if he believes it would be as necessary to vaccinate babies and toddlers if adults were vaccinated “at a higher rate.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, right, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks as Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) listens during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Fauci, however, did not directly answer the question, instead predicting the vaccine for the youngest demographic will be available in the first part of 2022 and emphasizing that “yeah, we do want to be vaccinating the children”:
Well, I believe it’s going to be in the first quarter of 2022. I would hope it would be in the first quarter because the studies are being done right now on children from two to five and then from six months to two years. And now they may take longer because the younger you get, the more obviously vulnerable. Children are vulnerable. You got to be extra, especially careful about safety. I don’t think there’s going to be an issue with efficacy. There’s no reason to believe why it will not be efficacious and ultimately effective in the children. But when you’re dealing with children, it’s a very sensitive area. And that’s the reason why I may take a little bit longer. But I would hope by the time we get into the first quarter of 2022, we’ll be able to do that. You know, one of the things that people should appreciate is that we are in a very stressful, unique and complicated situation with COVID 19. But when we look back on this, it’s going to settle into something that will ultimately be a policy that’s been tried, true and tested. We vaccinate children way down to lower age for diseases that have much less morbidity and mortality than COVID-19. So that’s what I say when people say, “Are you sure you want to be vaccinating the children?” Yeah, we do want to be vaccinating the children because we want to vaccinate and protect everyone in society, including children.
Fauci’s remarks come weeks after the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) emergency use authorization of Pfizer’s vaccine for children five to 11 years old.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the overall case rate in children is 8,992 cases per 100,000 children, per the organization’s data last updated November 18. Overall, 6,767,762 child coronavirus cases have been reported, representing 16.9 percent of cases.
Among states reporting — 24 as well as New York City — 0.1 percent -1.9 percent of all child coronavirus cases resulted in hospitalization. Further, among 45 states reporting, as well as New York City, Puerto Rico, and Guam, children represented 0.00 percent – 0.25 percent of all coronavirus deaths, “and 6 states reported zero child death.”
“In states reporting, 0.00%-0.03% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in death,” the AAP’s data found.