Fauci: ‘Seriously ill,’ unvaccinated children in hospitals was ‘avoidable’

Anthony Fauci on Thursday encouraged parents to vaccinate their children who are eligible for COVID-19 shots in order to prevent “avoidable” serious illness or hospitalization.

“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, who is President Biden’s chief medical adviser, said in an appearance on NewsNation’s “Morning in America.”

“That is avoidable,” he added.

“All you have to do is go to any pediatric hospital right now, virtually anywhere in the country, and you see children there who are suffering, some even dying, who need not be in that situation if they were vaccinated,” he continued. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that nearly 78 percent of people ages 5 and older in the U.S. have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly 66 percent are fully vaccinated.

“We vaccinate children for a number of childhood diseases, where the mortality of those diseases is far less than the mortality and the morbidity of COVID-19 on children,” Fauci also noted. 

“If you look at the number of children right now going to the hospital who are in trouble, getting seriously ill, you almost have to say it’s the responsibility of the parent to protect their child,” he added.

New York City earlier this week reported a 400 percent increase in pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations as the omicron variant surged through the city.

According to WABC, none of the children ages 5 to 11 that were hospitalized in the city after Dec. 5 were fully vaccinated.