Given that lives are at stake, Dr Anthony Fauci favors extending vaccine mandates at the local level.

Vaccine mandates have become a highly controversial matter in many places in the United States.

“I have been of this opinion, and I remain of that opinion, that I do believe at the local level, Jake, there should be more mandates. There really should be. We’re talking about life and death situation. We have lost 600,000 Americans already, and we’re still losing more people,” said Dr Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a top adviser to President Biden on the coronavirus pandemic. “There have been 4 million deaths worldwide. This is serious business. So I am in favor of that. One of the things that will happen, and I think the hesitancy at the local level of doing mandates is because the vaccines have not been officially fully approved. But people need to understand that the amount of data right now that shows a high degree of effectiveness and a high degree of safety is more than we’ve ever seen with the emergency use authorization, so these vaccines are as good as officially approved with all the ‘I’s dotted and ‘T’s crossed.

“It hasn’t been done yet because the [Food and Drug Administration] has to do certain things. But it’s as good as done. So people should really understand that. But they are waiting now until you get an official approval before. And I think when you do see the official approval, you’ll see a lot more mandates,” he added.

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