Only a small fraction of children hospitalized for COVID-19 have been fully vaccinated, according to a report released Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC said that 0.4 percent of children and adolescents admitted to six hospitals during July and August with serious COVID-19 infections were fully vaccinated.
“This study demonstrates that unvaccinated children hospitalized for COVID-19 could experience severe disease and reinforces the importance of vaccination of all eligible children to provide individual protection and to protect those who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated,” the study said.
The new study aligns with recent comments from Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, who on Thursday encouraged parents to vaccinate their children who are eligible for COVID-19 shots.
“Virtually all, not 100 percent but close to that, the children who are seriously ill in our hospitals from COVID-19 are children whose parents decided they did not want to vaccinate them,” Fauci said in an interview on NewsNation’s “Morning in America.”
“That is avoidable,” he added, noting that some children are suffering in hospitals “who need not be in that situation if they were vaccinated.”
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce on Monday approval for booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds as well as booster eligibility for immunocompromised children ages 5 to 11.