SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 28 March 2024, Thursday |

Biden says children under 12 could be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines soon

Speaking at a televised town hall in Cincinnati, Us President Joe Biden said that children under 12, who are currently ineligible for the three coronavirus vaccines, could get shots by August or later in the fall.

At the town hall, Biden said to CNN that, “They’re not promising me any specific date, but my expectation, talking to the scientists is that sometimes, maybe in the beginning of the school year, at the end of August, beginning of September, October, you’ll get a final approval” for vaccinating kids. But, he added, the ultimate decision lay with officials at the FDA and CDC. “I do not tell any scientists what they should do. I do not interfere”.

He further said that the CDC would probably recommend that “everyone under the age of 12 should probably be wearing masks in school”.

COVID-19 cases in the US have tripled in the past two weeks.

Also, as per the CDC, only 56.2 per cent of Americans have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine.

Biden also expressed frustration that many Americans who were eligible for vaccines were not getting them. He said, “We have a pandemic for those who haven’t gotten the vaccination – it’s that basic, that simple,” Biden said. “If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalised, you’re not going to be in the IC unit, and you’re not going to die”.