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FDA Again Warns Parents Not to Get Children Under 12 Vaccinated Yet

TrendingFDA Again Warns Parents Not to Get Children Under 12 Vaccinated Yet
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Initially reluctant to enact mandates, President Biden is now moving more aggressively than any other president in modern history to require vaccination, including in schools.

The president traveled to Brookland Middle School in Washington on Friday with Jill Biden, the first lady, a college professor who returned to the classroom this week. In his remarks, Mr. Biden urged parents to get eligible children vaccinated, and promised a White House visit to the school once every student received a vaccine.

“The safest thing you can do for your child 12 and older is get them vaccinated,” the president told the crowd. “You’ve got them vaccinated for all kinds of other things — measles mumps rubella — for them to go to school, to be able to play sports, they’ve had to have these vaccinations. Get them vaccinated.”

A slate of new requirements announced this week would apply to those who teach in Head Start programs, Department of Defense Schools, and schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Education. Collectively, those schools serve more than 1 million children and employ nearly 300,000 staff, according to the plan released by administration officials.

“We cannot always know what the future holds, but we do know what we owe our children,” Dr. Biden said on Friday. “We owe them a promise to keep their schools open as safe as possible. We owe them a commitment to follow the science.”

The surge of new cases, driven by the more contagious Delta variant, ripping through unvaccinated communities has also impacted children, who are currently being hospitalized at the highest levels reported to date, with nearly 30,000 entering hospitals in August.

Children still remain markedly less likely to be hospitalized or die from Covid-19 than adults, especially older adults. But experts say that the growing number of hospitalized children, however small compared with adults, should not be an afterthought, and should instead encourage communities to work harder to protect their youngest residents.

Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting.

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