Dr. Fauci says high school students can be vaccinated by fall

High school students could receive a coronavirus vaccination by the upcoming fall semester and elementary school students in the first quarter of next year, Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted on Sunday, citing ongoing tests on the vaccines’ ability to safely protect children.

“Perhaps not the very first day,” Fauci said of high school students being eligible for vaccination on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” “but certainly early in the fall for that fall educational period.”

Currently, the Johnson & Johnson and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are approved for individuals 18 years of age and older, while the Pfizer vaccine is approved for individuals 16 years and older.

Pfizer and Moderna have completed enrollment for vaccine studies in children 12 years and older, and the results of those studies may be released this summer. Both companies expect to start studies with children 11 and under later this year, The Associated Press reported.

At the same time, Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, urged Americans not to be wary and to keep practicing distancing and wearing a mask, as daily cases are likely to pick up again before we achieve herd immunity.

The number of new daily cases has dropped from decline to 60,000 to 70,000 cases after a few weeks, he said. History has shown that when high-level cases reach a plateau, they don’t start falling – they rise. Current conditions in Europe are also an indicator that there is a potential rise in the number of cases on America’s horizon, he said.

“They are usually a few weeks ahead of us in these patterns,” Fauci said of COVID-19 counts in European countries. “They came down too, then they came flat, and they’ve had about 9% more cases in the last week.”

Fauci insisted, “We’re going in the right direction. We just have to hang around there a bit longer. “