Dr. Anthony Fauci: Kids Must Still Wear Masks Outside Playing with Friends

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 25: Children wearing face masks play on their scooters during the cor
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Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned parents Thursday kids still needed to wear masks, despite the Centers for Disease Control lifting mask mandates for fully vaccinated adults.

Fauci spoke about the importance of children continuing to wear masks during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“Yeah, the children do when they’re out there playing with their friends and, you know, and – particularly in an indoor situation, they do,” Fauci told Tapper when asked if parents needed to keep their kids in masks. The coronavirus vaccines have not yet been approved for children under 12.

Fauci said federal health officials would continue to study the safety of the coronavirus vaccines in children so that “hopefully” the youth of any age could get vaccinated by the end of the year.

“We want virtually everybody to get vaccinated,” he said.

Fauci added some state and local mask mandates might have to remain in place for a while since it was difficult to tell whether the majority of the population was vaccinated.

“Since you can’t completely validate that someone’s vaccinated except depending upon them telling you that, if you drop the mask mandate, then you might have an increase in infection among those who are not vaccinated,” he said.

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