Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said the best way to protect children against Covid-19 is for more people who are eligible to get vaccinated.
“Well, it is very true that Delta seems capable of not just giving severe illness to older people, but also to adolescents and even children,” Collins told ABC’s Good Morning America Monday when asked about children getting more seriously ill. “Another reason, I think, why we really have to push forward as much as we can with getting vaccination rates up.”
He said that he was encouraged by increases in vaccinations over the last two weeks, especially in places such as Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida, which are being hit hard by Delta.
According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of 432,399 people are initiating vaccination each day, a 24% increase over last week when there were just about 100,000 new vaccinations each day.
“We need to push that,” he said. “If you’re really worried about the kids, well let’s get the people who can be vaccinated at a higher rate, we’ve got a long way to go in some of those communities to get to the point where people are protected.”