NIH director: Teachers, parents possibly in same category as health care workers for COVID-19

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins said on Sunday that people who are regularly in contact with children may need to be considered in the same high-risk category as health care workers for COVID-19.

Appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Collins was asked by host Margaret Brennan whether he agreed with a Food and Drug Administration official who recently placed teachers in the high-risk category.

“I think they could be seen in that space. They are after all, in circumstances — especially if they’re in classrooms with kids under 12 who can’t be vaccinated — where they are at higher risk of exposure than most of the rest of us. So maybe in that regard, they kind of fit into the same category as health care providers,” Collins said.

Brennan asked if this reasoning also placed someone like her, who lives with children who are not eligible to be vaccinated, at a higher risk.

“Margaret, that is a great question and I think that is one of the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] will probably have their committee discuss in some seriousness on Wednesday and Thursday because yes, you are in a circumstance with younger kids who can’t be immunized, where it is more likely that you could be exposed than somebody who’s living alone,” the NIH director said.

Does living with unvaccinated kids put a person in the high-risk category? @NIHDirector Dr. Collins: “Yes, you are in a circumstance with younger kids who can’t be immunized where it is more likely that you could be exposed than somebody who’s living alone.” pic.twitter.com/QRPxeowbne

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) September 19, 2021

Brennan also asked Collins whether those who are now eligible for a third booster shot could receive a Pfizer dose if their initial doses had come from Moderna or Johnson & Johnson.

“We’re gonna know more about that just in the course of the next two or three weeks. Tight now we don’t have the answer,” Collins said. “Moderna and J&J by the way have also submitted their booster data so it’s likely that [the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)] will be able to have a comment on that pretty soon.”

“Let’s be clear. The vaccines right now in the U.S. are doing a great job of protecting people against severe disease, hospitalization. What we’re worried about is that’s beginning to erode and we’re seeing more breakthrough cases and we don’t want to get behind this virus we want to stay ahead of it.”

An FDA advisory panel on Friday recommended a third Pfizer booster dose for the elderly and other high-risk groups.