Dr. Emanuel: ‘We Need to Really Mandate, I Think, 12 to 15 Year Olds to Get the Vaccine’

‘The safest two things we can do for children is to lower the rate of spread and get them vaccinated, and the third thing is have them wear masks in class’

EXCERPT:

EMANUEL: “Absolutely, and I think they understand the urgency. They also understand their responsibility to make sure that children are safe and that the vaccine is effective for the children. The last thing we want is to administer a vaccine that turns out to be harmful in some way. The FDA has been very careful all the way along, but it has given full authorization for people from 16 and older for the Pfizer vaccine, and it’s given an emergency use authorization for children 12 to 15, and only 40% of those kids 12 to 15 have gotten fully vaccinated. We really need that number to go way up. Just to give you a contrast, adults between 65 and 75 who were so threatened before, 85% of them are vaccinated. We need to really mandate, I think, 12- to 15-year-olds to get the vaccine all across the country to protect them. The safest two things we can do for children is to lower the rate of spread and get them vaccinated, and the third thing is have them wear masks in class.”

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