Dr Fauci warns kids STILL have to wear masks when playing with friends after CDC said vaccinated Americans can ditch them as he predicts six-month-old babies could be jabbed by the end of the year
Dr Anthony Fauci said Thursday children will still have to wear masks - hours after the CDC finally said fully vaccinated Americans can ditch the coverings indoors.
In his first interview since the mask guidance update Fauci told CNN he 'wouldn't go so far as to say [the pandemic] is essentially over', adding: 'I think this is a very important step in the direction of trying to get back to some degree of normality.
'So, I wouldn't want to declare victory prematurely, but I'm saying this is clearly a step in the direction that we want to go,' he added.
Asked if children needed to continue wearing masks to protect against COVID-19 Fauci said: 'The children do when they are out there playing with their friends, particularly in an indoor situation, they do.'
His recommendation comes even after a study released this week found that nearly three quarters of infected children will never develop typical COVID symptoms like fevers or coughs. Kids are also believed to not spread the virus as easily as adults.
Fauci did say there are studies now in an age de-escalation 'from 12 to nine, nine to six, six to two and then six months to two years so that we will be able hopefully by the end of the year to be able to vaccinate children of any age'.
Fauci gave his first interview since the mask guidance update on Thursday. He told CNN he 'wouldn't want to declare victory prematurely' and it's not over
Elizabeth Brauer (C) holds the hand of her son Luke Brauer, 13, before he receives a Covid-19 vaccination at the Fairfax Government Center vaccination clinic in Fairfax, Virginia
'I would certainly think that would be an option if the children are vaccinated not to have a mask,' Fauci later added.
He also noted children as young as 12 are now eligible to get Pfizer's shot, telling Jake Tapper: 'One of the things that is also important that has happened most recently is the approval of vaccines for children 12-15 years old.
'And we are also doing studies now in an age de-escalation so that we will be able hopefully by the end of the year to be able to vaccinate children of any age.
'Right now the 12 to 15 year old are eligible to get vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine. So that's another good news story.'
To-date, more than 118 million Americans are fully vaccinated, accounting for just over a third of the U.S. population, and 45 percent of adults have had at least one dose.
Cases are falling fast, down to a seven-day-average of 38,000 or 11 per 100,000.
Fully-vaccinated Americans can finally stop wearing their masks almost anywhere - indoors or outdoors, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Thursday
Asked if parents should continue putting their children in masks Fauci said: 'The children do when they are out there playing with their friends, particularly in an indoor situation, they do'
Fully-vaccinated Americans can finally stop wearing their masks almost anywhere - indoors or outdoors, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Thursday.
Fauci said it is now important to get schools reopen 'full blast', adding that they should be five days a week and in person learning. He said: 'We really have to do that by the time we get to the fall.'
Asked if grocery stores and pharmacies should allow people in without masks, Fauci replied 'absolutely'.
But he did acknowledge the judgement call on that for businesses will 'be a real difficult one', adding: 'People feel very put upon if you're essentially judging them on the basis of whether they have been vaccinated.
'We want vaccinated – we want people to get vaccinated – as many people as we can possibly get vaccinated, but I think there's going to be a pushback against questioning somebody when they walk in, because you can never validate or prove that they're telling you the truth.'
However, the CDC's recommendation is just that - an unenforceable recommendation. States, cities and businesses can still require masks.
And in discussing individual states ending their mask mandates Fauci acknowledged: 'The problem they're going to find, Jake, from a public health standpoint, since you can't completely validate that someone's vaccinated except depending upon them telling you that, if you drop the mask mandate, then you might have an increase in infection among those who are not vaccinated.
'So that's the kind of dicey situation that you're in when you're trying to deal about policy at the local level when you have a high degree of transmission. That's not an easy decision to make.'
Those who have finished their shot regimen can now go out to eat, see a movie, shake hands and give hugs at will, according to the new guidance.
The new guidance still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings like buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters, but could ease restrictions for reopening workplaces and schools.
People who are fully vaccinated but immunocompromised people may still be advised by their doctors to keep masking.
Even President Biden - along with several lawmakers meeting him to discuss infrastructure in the Oval Office - stripped off his mask upon the news, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Democrat from New York, told the Guardian.
The office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said its health department is reviewing the new guidelines, but has not issued an official update.
Equinox Gym notified members Thursday afternoon that masks are still required while working out at its New York gyms.
The White House officially lifted its mandate requiring masks on the premise, allowing staffers and journalists on Thursday to uncover their faces on for the first time since Biden took office.
'Today is a great day for America,' Biden said in an afternoon press conference, as he declared the new guidance a 'great milestone.'
The ability for vaccinated Americans to unmask comes as a product of enough people being vaccinated to start to peel back other measures to slow the spread of COVID-19.
As vaccination has become widespread, scientists in the U.S. - and especially in Israel - have had a chance to see real-world proof that the shots prevent almost all transmission.
What's more, as vaccination rates have risen, President Biden noted that average daily COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have fallen to their lowest level since April 2020 - just after the pandemic took hold in the U.S. - falling to 586 a day, according to CDC data.
'Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in activities indoors or outdoors, large or small, without physical distancing,' announced CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky during a Friday White House press briefing, she said, praising the rapid vaccination effort for allowing masks to come off, and Covid cases to stay down.
The Biden administration have faced pressure to ease restrictions on fully vaccinated people - people who are two weeks past their last required COVID-19 vaccine dose - in part to highlight the benefits of getting the shot.
The CDC's new guidance also comes two weeks after the agency recommended that fully vaccinated people continue to wear masks indoors in all settings and outdoors in large crowds
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May 14, 2021
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