Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said on Sunday that she believed kids should be able to go trick-or-treating this coming Halloween as long as residents adhere to certain restrictions to protect themselves from the pandemic.
During an interview, Walensky was asked about her take on whether or not children should be allowed to go out and trick-or-treat on Halloween. The official answered by saying that she hoped that would be the case.
Trick-or-Treating on Halloween
Walensky also urged that parents and children should limit gathering in large crowds during the holiday. She recommended residents avoid going to a crowded Halloween party but said that small groups of children should be able to go trick-or-treating.
Pharmaceutical companies and coronavirus vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna on Monday announced that a smaller dose of their treatments would be safe to administer. They added that a small amount of the vaccines generate a "robust" immune response in a clinical trial of kids aged five to 11 years, CNBC reported.
Albert Bourla, the CEO and chairman of Pfizer, said the data from the studies would soon be presented to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). During an interview, Bourla said that the presentation of data is a matter of days and not weeks.
The CDC released data that showed 64.6% of United States residents over the age of 12 years have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus infection. In May, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization that allowed Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to children aged 12 to 15 years old.
However, while children younger than 12 years old are not yet eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccines, that time may soon come in the United States. The nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, supported the proposal to allow kids younger than 12 to be eligible for the treatment, Business Insider reported.
Coronavirus Vaccines
Both Walensky and Fauci's statements are a call aimed at residents to have themselves and their family members vaccinated against the coronavirus infection. The requests come as the pandemic continues to terrorize citizens and healthcare facilities that are running out of room for patients.
In addition, local governments are now starting to offer booster shots to fully vaccinated individuals as an added protection against coronavirus infection. American citizens aged 65 and older and people who are at risk of severe illness are a priority because they are at greater risk from the coronavirus infection.
"If you're not vaccinated, please get vaccinated. If you're eligible for a boost, go get your boost," Walensky said. Last week, Fauci said that Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, another pharmaceutical company that has manufactured a vaccine for the coronavirus, sent out data to the FDA about the safety and efficacy of booster shots. Officials noted that data and results will be received by the agency in the coming weeks, MassLive reported.
Fauci also said that Pfizer's authorization would most likely come before Moderna's authorization. The infectious disease expert said that under a best-case scenario, children would be eligible to receive the vaccines by Halloween.
