prevent a winter spike. it is conceivable that that is going to be the case. but we can do something about it. we can get the unvaccinated vaccinated. we can get those who have been vaccinated boosters. and we can be prudent and careful when we go to indoor congregate settings to make sure that we follow the cdc recommendations of wearing a mask. if we do that, it is within our power to prevent a big surge. and dr. esther chu is joining us. i want to start first with what dr. fauci said. get your shots, your boosters, wear a mask, all the things that we know. but travel is way up and people are getting together more than they did last year. what is your biggest concern as we head into the holidays and the winter season? well, thanks for having me on. the holidays have always been kind of our achilles heel in
within days of having that data. they ll file quickly with the fda. the fda said it s a matter of weeks not months to make a determination whether they re going to authorize vaccines for kids 5 to 11. i interpret it to mean perhaps four to six weeks. thing a best-case scenario given the timeline i ve laid out, you could potentially a vaccine available to children age 5 to 11 by halloween, if everything goes well. earlier i spoke with cnn medical analyst, dr. esther chu, about the current push for vaccines and mask use. i asked her what she thought about the effectiveness of the mandates. here is part of our conversation. there are plenty of people on the ground who want their children masked. who want to do the best they can until we can offer the additional protections to children. it s very hard to push up stream. you know, i have family in texas where people would like to have
need to be considering the fact when we talk about the unvaccinated, our children are in that population. and because i have two unvaccinated children who are not eligible to be vaccinated for a few more months, we re going to scale back some things we were enjoying a few months ago after we got vaccinated just out of abundance of caution. dr. chu, some students are going back to school in a matter of days. a charter school in atlanta says nine students, five staff members tested positive for covid, that means more than 100 students are quarantining. what is your advice to parents who may be nervous about sending young children back for in person learning, kids who are not eligible to be vaccinated yet. yeah. there s a lot of guidance from the american academy of pediatrics and the cdc about the importance of going back to in person learning. it won t be possible for a some
advice on some practical things people are wondering about. jessica, one question is, would you go grocery shopping without a mask if you re vaccinated? without a mask, no. i think it s important to wear a mask indoors in public settings. dr. el said, would you visit older folks immunocompromised? i would but wear a mask and a if possible, do it outdoors and take advantage of the weather. stepping back, one idea, if you have to ask, wear a mask. good one, okay. dr. chu, would you take unvaccinated children to an amusement park? i would make some modifications from usual. we would all wear masks. we would stay outside as much as possible and we would certainly probably pack food or purchase food and eat it outside or anywhere indoors. got it. what about an indoor wedding? what would you do about that right now? we lost her.
67,000 coronavirus cases every day, that s up more than 50% in the last seven days alone, fueled by the delta variant. new cdc research shedding light on how much more contagious this more transmissible strain is. although the spread is driven by people who have not been vaccinated, that s the majority of driver, vaccinated people infected with coronavirus can be contagious as well. bottom line, vaccinations save lives, masks can go a long way toward helping keep people safe. we have a team of experts here to discuss this. dr. esther chu, jessica rivera, science communication lead for covid-19 tracking project, and dr. el-sayed. thank you to you all as we sort through this. i want to talk first about the cdc released a lot of new