Anthony Fauci: ‘There Should Be More’ Covid Vaccine Mandates At Local Levels

Dr. Anthony Fauci says he would be in favor of local governments instituting coronavirus vaccine requirements among their communities.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director joined CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday to express his horror toward CPAC-goers cheering for America not meeting its vaccination goals. Tapper remarked that Fauci has been “very clear” in the past that the federal government won’t institute a vaccine mandate, but he also asked “do you think it’s generally a good idea for businesses or schools to require vaccinations?”

“I have been of this opinion, and I remain of that opinion, that I do believe at the local level, there should be more mandates,” Fauci answered. “We’re talking about life-and-death situations. We’ve lost 600,000 Americans already, and we’re still losing more people. There have been 4 million deaths worldwide. This is serious business. So I am in favor of that.”

Fauci continued by hypothesizing that local communities are hesitant to enact vaccine mandates because they haven’t officially been fully approved yet by the FDA. Addressing that point, Fauci predicted that the FDA will give Covid vaccines their full approval, though he described it as more of a formality at this point after what the vaccines have done with the FDA’s emergency use authorization.

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 FDA has to do certain things. But it’s as good as done. So people should really understand that.

Fauci concluded by predicting “you’re gonna see a lot more mandates” once the approval is finalized.

Watch above, via CNN.