DOCTOR Anthony Fauci said on Friday that he plans to discuss the possibility of mandatory vaccinations at individual schools and other organizations, as well as a potential “vaccine passport.”
The United States’ top infectious disease expert said he believes it’s “quite possible” for the Covid jab to become a required travel vaccine for Americans who visit other countries.
He told Newsweek that “everything will be on the table for discussion” with President-elect Joe Biden, who chose the immunologist as his chief medical adviser.
“It’s not up to me to make a decision. But these are all things that will be discussed [under the Biden administration],” he noted.
When asked whether a vaccine passport would be issued in the US, the White House Covid-19 task force member said: “Anything is on the table. Anything is possible, of course.”
But Fauci doesn’t believe Biden will enact a national Covid vaccine mandate because “we almost never mandate things federally [with regards to health],” he told the news outlet.
“I’m not sure it’s [the COVID-19 vaccine] going to be mandatory from a central government standpoint, like federal government mandates,” he said.
“But there are going to be individual institutions that I’m sure are going to mandate it.”
One type of those institutions could possibly be schools, but Fauci believes that could be an uphill battle because vaccines are mandated at the local level.
“A citywide school system might require it in some cities but not other cities. And that’s what I mean by things not being done centrally but locally,” he explained.
On Wednesday, Fauci warned that life may not return to normal until the fall as a more contagious “super Covid” strain could ravage the US.
Fauci acknowledged the highly contagious strain had emerged in California and Colorado during an online discussion of the pandemic with Cali Gov Gavin Newsom.
Fauci – who recently received his first dose of the Moderna vaccine – noted that if the United States “diligently vaccinate[s]” people next year, the country could resume some sense of normality come autumn.
He said herd immunity may be achieved if about 70 to 85 percent of the population gets the touted vaccine by then.
The top doc said: “By the time we get to the early fall, we will have enough good herd immunity to be able to really get back to some strong semblance of normality – schools, theaters, sports events, restaurants.
“I believe if we do it correctly, we will be there by the early fall,” Fauci said, before urging people to get vaccinated.”
