White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that unvaccinated children still need to wear masks, “particularly in an indoor situation.”
Dr. Fauci’s appeared on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” where the show’s host asked him to give a recommendation to vaccinated parents, whose children have not been immunized.
Unvaccinated children still need to wear masks when playing and particularly indoors, Dr. Anthony Fauci tells @JakeTapper. https://t.co/BT0SxTkgOs pic.twitter.com/Lz8xZhNR0J
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) May 13, 2021
“What is your message to parents who are out there thinking, ‘well, I’m vaccinated; my kids are not, but the odds of them getting the virus are very low.’ Would you tell them, ‘no, no, no, kids would still need to wear a mask’?” Tapper asked.
“Yeah. The children do when they are out there playing with their friends, particularly in an indoor situation,” Fauci responded. (RELATED: ‘Children Can Clearly Wind Up Getting Infected’: Dr. Fauci Says Children Should Continue Wearing Masks While Playing)
He then immediately proceeded to tout a Monday approval of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for children “12 to 15 years old,” and claimed that there are studies currently underway that use the “age de-escalation” approach to test the vaccines’ safety for use by children in the younger age groups.
“We’ll be able, hopefully, by the end of the year … to vaccinate children of any age,” Fauci claimed.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance Thursday to allow vaccinated people to choose not to wear masks even while indoors in most situations.