Health

(WASHINGTON) — As the delta variant spreads, posing a heightened risk to everyone who isn’t vaccinated, demand has skyrocketed for a vaccine that will protect young children who are not yet eligible — a group facing more cases than ever before during the pandemic.

And while experts still consider it uncommon for children to get severely sick from the virus, being unvaccinated leaves them more vulnerable. Over 94,000 children were diagnosed with COVID last week, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, and hospitals nationwide are reporting more and more children in their pediatric COVID units.

Here’s what we know so far about when a safe and effective vaccine for children under 12 will be authorized by the Federal Drug Administration:

First shots for young kids expected in late fall, early winter

Pfizer has said it will submit vaccine safety data on 5- to 11-year-olds by the end of September. Moderna has said it will do so in the middle of the fall. It will then be up to the FDA on how quickly it grants the authorization.

In general, federal and industry officials said they expect the first vaccine shots for children ages 5-11 could happen by the end of this year or early 2022. Timing on a vaccine for children younger than 5 is less certain, but officials have said they hope a greenlight for toddlers and infants will follow soon after.

But the precise timing is fluid. Clinical trials are still ongoing, and the FDA has signaled it wants to expand the pool of children signed up as volunteers. A larger pool of volunteers makes it more likely that even the rarest of side effects could be detected before it rolls out nationwide.

The vaccine for children ages 5 through 11 would be the same composition, but a smaller dose. For Pfizer, children under 12 would receive 10 micrograms, while everyone 12 and older receives a 30-microgram dose.

FDA is under extraordinary pressure to move fast.

Some have urged the FDA to move more quickly to authorize the shot because of the toll the delta variant is taking on children. In a recent letter to the head of the FDA, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics said that last week showed the “largest week-over-week percentage increase in pediatric COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic,” at 72,000 pediatric COVID cases in a week, up from around 39,000 reported in the previous week.

“Simply stated, the Delta variant has created a new and pressing risk to children and adolescents across this country, as it has also done for unvaccinated adults,” AAP President Lee Savio Beers wrote in a letter to the acting FDA Administrator Janet Woodcock.

In an effort to speed up the authorization, Beers suggested the FDA authorize the vaccines with the data from the children already enrolled, and then continue to monitor an expanded, second group of children.

In an interview with ABC News Live on Monday, Beers said the AAP was worried that the recent FDA decision to double the children participating in the vaccine trials would delay the timing for a vaccine at a critical time and that “the data is there” with the current cohort for the FDA to act very soon.

“We really think that we need to be approaching the trials in the authorization of the COVID vaccine for children with the same urgency that we did with adults,” Beers said in the interview.

FDA insists it won’t cut any corners

While the FDA insists it won’t cut any corners, according to a government official, requesting more children to participate in the trials isn’t expected to hold up the vaccine authorization process. That’s because parents have been eager to enroll their children to receive the vaccine.

The FDA also isn’t likely to require an extended period of safety data collection for the younger age group, a consideration that the FDA ultimately decided wasn’t necessary so long as more children were enrolled in the trial.

The FDA’s vaccine chief, Peter Marks, has repeatedly defended the FDA’s timeline and decision-making process, saying the agency is going to be thorough.

“Just so everyone understands, we are going to be very careful as we get down to smaller children,” he said in a May event with the group BlackDoctor.org, a health resource that focuses on outreach to African Americans.

“We have to reduce the dose of the vaccine, we’re more cautious about side effects, it takes longer to do the development,” Marks said.

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(NEW YORK) — Unvaccinated COVID-19 patients are sharing their stories of battling the dangerous virus and why the experience changed their minds about the shot.

‘This isn’t fun’

Curtis Cannon, a 75-year-old COVID-19 patient at Willis-Knighton Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, spoke to ABC News from his hospital bed on Aug. 5.

Cannon said he was at first skeptical about the vaccine. But now, struggling to breathe and suffering severe chest pains, he realizes how “real” COVID-19 is.

Cannon said he’d tell others who are skeptical: “They need to get vaccinated, because this isn’t fun.”

Cannon said he’ll get vaccinated once he is released from the hospital.

‘I was wrong’

Travis Campbell, an unvaccinated COVID-19 patient, spoke to ABC News from his hospital bed at the Bristol Regional Medical Center Hospital in Tennessee.

“When you feel like you have to fight for your life, you don’t realize that you’re fighting for every single breath all day long,” he said.

The 43-year-old husband and dad said he regrets not getting vaccinated.

“We thought it wasn’t an urgent matter to get the vaccine and I was wrong,” Campbell said.

“I would rather be covered and protected and if something does happen and I have to worry about repercussions of the vaccine versus being buried in seven days,” he said. “I beg you, please see your doctor and make an evaluated decision and protect your family or prepare yourself for your next life.”

‘Have a fighting chance’

Marquis Davis, a 28-year-old husband and father from Florida, died from COVID-19 on July 26, 2021. He wasn’t vaccinated.

Davis had been hesitant to take the vaccine. He told his wife in the hospital that he wanted to get the shot after he recovered.

To honor his memory, his family turned his funeral into a vaccine and testing event.

“This could have been prevented, so let’s get vaccinated so it doesn’t happen to you,” his wife, Charnese Davis, told ABC News.

“At least have a fighting chance. Protect yourself. Protect your family. This is nothing to be to be playing around with,” she said.

‘I never expected to be a widow at the age of 25’

Braderick Wright, a 28-year-old Georgia man who was hesitant to get the vaccine, died of COVID-19 on Aug. 7, 2021, reported ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB.

“He was deep into TikTok conspiracy theories and, for him, he just didn’t want to get [vaccinated],” his wife Brittany Wright told WSB.

“I never expected to be a widow at the age of 25,” she told WSB.

Brittany Wright said her husband’s dying wish was for more people to get vaccinated.

‘Please just get vaccinated’

Lateasa McLean, a 51-year-old in Lincoln County, North Carolina, was hospitalized twice after testing positive for COVD-19.

“My grandson and my granddaughter, they’re wheeling me out and I’m thinking, ‘Is this going to be the last time that I see them?'” she told ABC Charlotte affiliate WSOC.

While in the hospital, McLean said she realized, “I should have gotten vaccinated. And now I’m putting my family through this, for something I could have prevented.”

McLean, who works as a patient representative/patient safety sitter at a hospital, said she plans to get vaccinated.

“I just want everybody to listen to my story and please just get vaccinated,” she told WSOC.

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(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Public health experts and state officials are raising alarms about a surge in COVID hospitalizations among children — now at their steepest and seeing the most significant increase since the onset of the pandemic.

After declining in the early summer, child COVID-19 cases have steadily increased again in recent weeks — just as many kids head back to the classroom.

In a newly released weekly report, which compiles state-by-state data on COVID-19 cases among children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) found that nearly 94,000 new child COVID-19 cases were reported last week, a continued “substantial” increase.

Some of the worst numbers are in Louisiana and Florida but could get worse elsewhere fast as public health officials express concerns with the highly contagious delta variant amid continued vaccine hesitancy.

“This is not your grandfather’s COVID,” Dr. Mark Kline, the physician in chief of Children’s Hospital New Orleans told ABC’s “Good Morning America” Monday. Louisiana is facing the nation’s highest rate of new COVID-19 cases with the Children’s Hospital in New Orleans describing what they’re seeing as “an epidemic of very young children.”

“We are hospitalizing record numbers of children,” Kline continued. “Half of the children in our hospital today are under two years of age. Most of the others are between five and ten years of age — too young to be vaccinated just yet.”

In Florida, the state with the highest number of confirmed pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations in the country, 179 patients are receiving care, according to federal data. As of Monday morning, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami had one child on a ventilator.

Dr. Marcos Mestre, the hospital’s vice president and chief medical officer, told ABC News that in recent weeks, his teams have seen a “significant uptick” in pediatric COVID-19 cases. He said some children are alone in the hospital because their parents, also unvaccinated, are battling COVID-19 at another hospital.

“It’s tough,” he said, and places “undue social stress on the child, as you can imagine, not having the parents around.”

Texas follows Florida closely behind with 161 confirmed pediatric patients hospitalized across the state, and in California, there are 98 confirmed pediatric patients receiving care.

It comes as the country’s daily case average for Americans increased to nearly 100,000 cases a day for the past four days — up by 31.7% in the last week and nearly nine times higher than the average was in mid-June. For children 17 and under, the rate of pediatric hospital admissions per capita is 3.75 times higher than it was just a month ago — now equal to its highest point of the pandemic, in January 2021.

While severe illness due to COVID-19 remains “uncommon” among children, experts say the increased trend is concerning.

“While severe outcomes of COVID-19 infection in pediatric populations continue to be relatively low compared to adults, the current exponential growth in hospitalizations is a very worrisome trend,” explained Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “As the remaining population ineligible for the vaccine, children will, unfortunately, be the main vectors of virus spread creating risk to both themselves and the rest of the population.”

The Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved vaccines for children under 12, leaving a large youth population susceptible to COVID-19. But following data released by the AAP last week showing the massive increase in COVID-19 cases among kids, the organization wrote a letter to the head of the FDA urging authorization of vaccines for 5-11-year-olds as fast as possible.

“We understand that the FDA has recently worked with Pfizer and Moderna to double the number of children ages 5-11 years included in clinical trials of their COVID-19 vaccines. While we appreciate this prudent step to gather more safety data, we urge FDA to carefully consider the impact of this decision on the timeline for authorizing a vaccine for this age group,” wrote Dr. Lee Savio Beers, president of the AAP.

“Simply stated, the delta variant has created a new and pressing risk to children and adolescents across this country, as it has also done for unvaccinated adults,” she said.

Beers told ABC News Live’s “The Breakdown” Monday that hospital workers are inundated with the massive increase in COVID-19 cases among kids particularly in areas where vaccinations are low.

“They’re seeing just a lot of kids who are very ill with COVID. They’re seeing children in their ICUs. They’re seeing children who are in pretty significant distress,” she said, reiterating the organization’s position that the FDA could approve vaccines for 5 to 11 years olds based on previous trials.

“We know that [COVID] can be severe in children, and so we should do those things that we need to do to help prevent the spread and help keep our kids and our whole community safe,” she added.

Dr. Ashish Jha, who supports expanding vaccinations for those 5 to 11, reiterated on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Monday the position widely shared by public health experts that the first step to getting kids back to school safely is with vaccinations for everyone who is eligible.

“Kids who can’t get vaccinated, you protect them by making sure everyone around them is vaccinated,” he said.

A recent CDC national immunization survey from late July found that among parents of children 13 to 17, 49.8% had children vaccinated or definitely plan to vaccinate, 25.4% were “probably will get their children vaccinated or are unsure”, and 24.8% are reluctant, “probably or definitely will not get children vaccinated.”

Despite the delta surge, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found among unvaccinated adults, nearly half, 46%, say they definitely won’t get a shot, 15% call it very unlikely and 10% somewhat unlikely. In another question, one in five of the unvaccinated say news about variants has made them more apt to get a jab.

As pediatric hospitalizations rise, especially where vaccination rates are low, Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine called what’s unfolding in the South a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

“As schools act as an accelerant you should assume we’re going to see pediatric intensive care units all across the South completely overwhelmed and even a possibility of small tent cities of sick adolescents and kids,” he told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” adding the slope is “going up and up.”

Less than 30% of Americans ages 12 to 15, and only 41% of Americans 16 to 17 are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

“And now schools are going to be an extraordinary accelerant,” he added. “If your adolescent kid is unvaccinated, you should assume there’s a high likelihood that that child is going to get COVID.”

The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, hopes that full approval to the coronavirus vaccine will be granted by the end of August, he said Sunday, and predicted the move will encourage and new wave of vaccinations.

“I hope — I don’t predict — I hope that it will be within the next few weeks. I hope it’s within the month of August,” Fauci said of full FDA approval on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If that’s the case, you’re going to see the empowerment of local enterprises, giving mandates that could be colleges, universities, places of business, a whole variety and I strongly support that. The time has come.”

But there’s opposition — and it could be heard by the Supreme Court.

A group of eight unvaccinated University of Indiana students made an 11th-hour appeal to the Supreme Court last week to block the school’s vaccination mandate for anyone on campus this fall. They put forth various arguments for why the mandate allegedly violates their constitutional rights and heightened legal scrutiny, including that it’s contrary to FDA’s emergency use authorization terms for the vaccines — which public health experts are hoping changes soon. The students asked for a decision by Friday.

ABC News’ Gary Langer, Cheyenne Haslett and Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The dangerous wildfires erupting across large portions of the Western U.S. are bringing major health risks to the residents.

The Dixie Fire near the Feather River Canyon in Northern California is now the second-largest fire in state history after it sparked last month. Whether you live in California, Oregon or Montana, here are some tips from doctors:

Dr. Zab Mosenifar, a lung specialist at Cedars-Sinai medical director of the Women’s Guild Lung Institute, says those in immediate danger are the residents within 25 miles of a fire.

Small particles in the air can travel hundreds of miles, and depending on the winds, particles can float for up to two weeks after a fire has been extinguished, Mosenifar warned.

Those especially in danger are children, the elderly and people with chronic respiratory problems, Mosenifar said.

“Breathing in smoke, spot and particulate matter in high concentration and/or for prolonged periods of time can result in short or long term lung damage,” said ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton.

“People who smoke, vape or have asthma are at higher risk for problems,” Ashton said.

“I recommend that anyone in the area wear an N95 particulate mask if possible,” she added.

Ashton urges residents with persistent coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing or chest tightness to seek medical attention and to wear goggles for eye protection.

“If your eyes are hurting or vision is impaired, seek medical attention immediately and do not rub your eyes as this could cause more damage,” she said.

Mosenifar recommends that residents use an air filter in their home or set their air conditioner to recirculate the air.

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(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Risking financial consequences from the state of Florida, the superintendent of Leon County Schools refused Monday to allow parents to opt their children out of the district-wide mask mandate.

The decision directly defies an emergency rule issued Friday by the Florida Department of Health, which mandates that school districts requiring masks for students let parents opt out without providing a reason.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an executive order issued on July 30, gave the state education commissioner the green light to deny money to districts that don’t comply with rules to protect “parents’ rights … to make health care decisions for their minor children.”

Some of Florida’s largest school districts, seemingly spooked by the threat of losing money, are allowing parents to opt their children out of mask mandates .

Superintendent Rocky Hanna, however, is forcing the state’s hand.

He cited the need to keep students safe, as Florida reports increased numbers of infections of COVID-19 and hospital admissions in children.

The state has the highest number of confirmed pediatric hospitalizations from the virus, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.

“If something happened and things went sideways for us this week and next week as we started school, and heaven forbid we lost a child to this virus, I can’t just simply blame the governor of the state. I can’t,” Hanna said.

He added, “If there’s an out and I didn’t take the out, and I didn’t do what was best for the children here in Tallahassee and Leon County, that’s on me.”

Parents in Leon County can submit a physician-signed form citing a medical need for their child to forgo a mask at school. They can also transfer their child to another school district via the Hope Scholarship, a program designed to protect bullied students which now, thanks to a new state rule, shields students from “COVID-19 harassment,” like mask mandates.

DeSantis’ office implied in a statement following Hannah’s announcement that any funding consequences would not affect students.

Instead, according to DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw, “The State Board of Education could move to withhold the salary of the district superintendent or school board members, as a narrowly tailored means to address the decision-makers who led to the violation of law.”

On Monday, Alachua County, home to Gainesville, confirmed that the district will also deny parents the chance to opt their children out of mask mandates without a medical reason.

“We want the same thing the governor wants. We want kids in their classrooms,” Jackie Johnson, the county’s communications director, told ABC News.

“The issue is we’ve got such a dramatic increase in the number of employees testing positive or having to be quarantined because of COVID. We certainly run the risk, if that trend isn’t reversed, of not having enough people to run our school safely,” she continued.

In a statement issued last week, Carlee Simon, the superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools, said two employees of the district had died of the virus within days of each other.

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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 delta variant continues to raise new concerns for Americans, parents can follow a set of five principles to help make going back to school safer for their children.

Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, joined Good Morning America Monday to share his five-point strategy:

1. Vaccinate everyone who is eligible and who will be around children in schools

“Those kids who can’t get vaccinated, the way you protect them is making sure everyone around them is vaccinated,” Jha said.

2. Upgrade ventilation in schools

“We’ve got a lot to do to improve the air quality in schools,” he said of ventilation and filtration.

3. Test in schools

“We should be testing every unvaccinated person on a regular basis in schools,” Jha said about extensive access to testing.

4. Wear masks

5. Avoid super-crowded events

Jha suggested avoiding assembly halls and concerts.

As for the latest surge hitting the U.S., Jha said he expects “that until we put in mitigation measures and get more people vaccinated, we’re going to be struggling with the delta variant for a while.”

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(NEW YORK) — Amid mask mandates and social distancing of a global pandemic, Barry’s, a boutique fitness club, says it’s disrupting the industry by giving consumers access to their product in ways that didn’t exist just one year ago.

But what it took to get there was a road wrought with challenge, uncertainty and innovation.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Barry’s, like so many fitness clubs, took a massive economic hit and had no digital offerings or infrastructure in place.

Priding themselves as “the best workout in the world,” Barry’s says it created opportunity in the height of COVID-19 lockdowns worldwide by remaining committed to keeping connections to their community alive and thriving. When it became clear global shutdowns would not be brief, the company immediately launched workouts live on Instagram, then formal at-home classes on video conferencing apps, like Zoom.

As 2020 wore on, the company eventually launched 19 outdoor studios that occupied spaces like parking garages, rooftops and empty, undeveloped land, converting those spaces into their infamous “Red Rooms” across the country.

Reopening their physical brick-and-mortar clubs would prove to have its own set of challenges when it became time.

Developing new operating and safety protocols and augmenting them to meet local government mandates has been an incredibly labor intensive process over the past 16 months, Barry’s told Good Morning America.

“We updated our HVAC system, introduced the use of EPA-registered cleaning supplies and at one point, social distancing in class and added five-minute breaks in between rounds to allow for extra cleaning and mask mandates.”

Now, as the world slowly begins to reopen, despite the lingering threat of COVID-19 and its emerging variants, Barry’s seems to have found footing in developing hybrid models of their business by blending versions of all their pandemic-era products into an omni-channel of offerings, including the newly unveiled “Barry’s X,” which includes live as well as on-demand classes.

According to Barry’s: “Barry’s X” is the first community-driven digital fitness product that seamlessly integrates key touch points of an in-person studio experience into a digital setting. Not only are you checked in by a moderator (who organizes the class and provides the same attention as the front desk), you’re also able to participate in a many-to-many experience which provides their fitness community with the opportunity to see and be seen.

“‘Barry’s X'” was created to provide people with the opportunity to experience the best workout in the world, taught by the best instructors, alongside an incredible global community – no matter where you are,” Barry’s CEO Joey Gonzalez told GMA exclusively.

The company says users will be able to turn their camera on during a live class, allowing the instructor to correct their form in real time, allowing them to see others in the class and be seen themselves. This will allow for an immersive digital experience that will allow instructors to help and correct form during a class, the brand touts, while also being able to check in with friends who are also taking the same class together.

“The camera-on feature allows you to be seen, as well as see old friends, new faces,” Gonzalez said. “And since it’s Barry’s, you can expect to see some famous ones as well.”

Another feature: Users will also be able to connect with their friends by sending friend requests and view their schedules and stats. Friends will also be able to invite each other to a class.

Gonzalez told GMA that they do expect a rise in hybridization as we continue to emerge from the pandemic.

“A number of boutique fitness studios across the country closed permanently during COVID, which means those respective workout communities have been displaced and will be looking for a new studio. As far as digital workouts, the landscape has never been more crowded,” Gonzalez said.

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(NEW YORK) — Life may be about to get tougher for the unvaccinated — and it’s not only because of their significantly increased risk of getting COVID-19 and becoming very sick.

A rising chorus of states, cities and private sector titans have implemented new vaccine requirements for their employees and patrons. It marks a new, less negotiable phase in the fight against the coronavirus, after months of cajoling and material goodies leading the vaccination campaign.

The new incentives aren’t financial. They draw motivation from immediate and tangible fears: of losing time to go get tested, losing a job, losing money or missing out on social events, as well as the ever more apparent pain of the pandemic hitting home through loss of life and loved ones. More than 97% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the country are unvaccinated, according to the White House COVID-19 Task Force.

Now, after months of vaccine rates tapering off, vaccination rates are heading back up with the recent surge of serious illness. On Thursday alone, the U.S. saw its highest vaccination numbers in over a month — 585,000 new vaccinations in a single day, the White House COVID-19 data director announced. Some of the most dramatic upticks in recent vaccinations have been in states with the highest surges in new cases and hospitalizations and some of the lowest vaccination rates.

“Watching more people dying in the ICU, kids getting sick? Yes, that motivates,” said Dr. Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics and the founding head of New York University School of Medicine’s medical ethics division. “Free beer, fishing license, free marijuana, college tuition didn’t move many people to get vaccinated.”

Unvaccinated Americans must now weigh their own personal risk-benefit ratio: Take the vaccine or face restrictions.

“The carrots do not work much,” Caplan said. “Now, we’re seeing more pressure coming from the other side.”

That pressure is coming in the form of federal, state and local vaccine requirements.

Requirements that government employees get vaccinated or face regular testing, social distancing and masks were accompanied by a slew of major companies like Google, Facebook, Tyson Foods and Disney, which is the parent company of ABC News, now requiring the vaccine for their employees.

“I think we’ve taken significant steps to make it difficult to come back to work, or more difficult to come back to work, if you’re not vaccinated,” White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said.

The Biden administration has made clear there will be no federal mandate; but its recent lean-in to vaccine requirements marks a shift in tone, going from removing barriers to getting the vaccine to making it harder to move about “normal” life for those who choose not to get it.

“There’s a bit of a hassle factor that plays into whether or not people are willing to get an exemption,” Julie Morita, executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told ABC. “And if it’s too difficult or more challenging, people might opt just to get vaccinated.”

As the NFL season gets into gear, the league informed clubs that it would not extend the season to accommodate a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players that leads to a game cancellation, the NFL Network reported, a stark turn from the season prior, when the league flexed the schedule to avoid missed games amid outbreaks. Additionally, players on both teams would forfeit pay for the lost contest, and the team responsible for the cancellation brought on by unvaccinated players would cover the financial losses and face potential disciplinary action.

Caplan suggests framing vaccination as the more appealing choice; opting out will make life harder.

New York is the first city in the country that will require proof of at least one dose of vaccination for some of the main modes of basic leisure — dining out inside, indoor entertainment and working out at the gym. All state employees will be required to get vaccinated or get tested weekly beginning Labor Day.

Major privately run hospitals in New York will impose a similar vaccine requirement. In internal emails obtained by ABC News, New York Presbyterian and Mount Sinai both notified staff that beginning in September, workers must show proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing. State-run, patient-facing hospital workers will have no testing option.

“Please note that compliance — either by vaccination or exemption — will be required for your continued employment,” New York Presbyterian’s hospital president and vice president said in a letter to staff. “We want all of our team members to continue working with us, but we have to balance that with the imperative to protect our patients, employees and communities.”

The move earned protest from the largest health care union in the U.S. Members of the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East said they shouldn’t have to be vaccinated to keep their jobs — especially if it risks losing front-line health workers at a time they’re most needed. That mirrored some national unions’ concerns about protecting individual freedoms — and not forcing their workers to pay for government-enforced testing.

Experts note there’s a fine line between requirements being “part of what’s going to nudge more people to get vaccinated,” as Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told ABC’s Start Here podcast, and pushing them away.

A full federal mandate might make hesitant and unvaccinated Americans “dig in their heels” further, Morita said.

“Generally, with mandates of any kind, you want to do everything else possible before you mandate something,” she said. “But when the vaccine is free, it’s accessible, and you’re still struggling, then mandates make sense. But you really want to give people the chance to do it on their own.”

The advent of more local mandates looms on the imminent horizon as soon as the vaccine is fully FDA-approved, which could come as soon as early September, a senior White House official familiar with the FDA approval process told ABC News.

Dr. Anthony Fauci called that moment a “game-changer,” one that will possibly provide more legal cover for companies to implement vaccine imperatives.

“‘My body, my choice’ is not an ethic for a plague,” Caplan said. “The ethics of plague are, ‘my body, vaccinated’ — more choices for everybody.”

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(New York) — With the hyper-transmissible delta variant driving a new COVID-19 surge, many families are wondering if it’s safe to send young children back to school for in-person learning.

Once again, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that adults and children wear masks in schools. Meanwhile, a COVID-19 vaccine isn’t likely to be available for children under 12 before the end of the year.

But Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez says that with the right precautions in place, children will benefit from in-person learning this year.

“I understand it is nerve-racking,” Bracho-Sanchez, a primary care pediatrician and assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Irving medical center explained in a conversation with ABC News on Instagram Live.

“Let’s trust the science. Let’s take a deep breath.”

Experts agree that the best step adults can take to keep kids safe is to get vaccinated themselves. Children are less likely to become infected with the virus if all the adults around them are immune, creating an invisible ring of protection.

Is delta more dangerous for children?

Data is still emerging on the new delta variant. For example, it’s still not clear if the variant causes more severe illness in adults and children, though the National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins recently told CNN the data is “tipping” that way.

But the real danger of delta is that it’s highly contagious and now surging in communities with low vaccination rates. The CDC now recommends that everyone in school settings — vaccinated or unvaccinated — wear a mask to slow transmission.

“I know it is frustrating, but it really, truly does make sense and we should be doing it,” Bracho-Sanchez said.

How can parents help kids prepare for in-person learning?

Bracho-Sanchez says children will benefit from in-person learning, but parents should be empowered to advocate with their school district to ensure the learning environment is as safe as possible.

At home, parents can help children transition by asking them about how they’re feeling about going back to a classroom.

“You know, I’ve seen kids who have seen too much and have been through too much in the past year and a half,” said Bracho-Sanchez. “Some have witnessed family members passing away … and we’re now going to ask them to make a transition and to perform at a level that they haven’t really been supported to perform at once the school year starts again.”

Bracho-Sanchez said she reminds her patients to go back to the basics: Get the school year off on the right foot by ensuring children are getting outdoor time, nutritious food and plenty of sleep.

“Once we’ve implemented all of those basics, we can also start having conversations about how kids are feeling about going back to school,” she said. “All it takes is creating this space and asking those questions.”

Should I consider holding my child back to catch up after last year?

Some schools might recommend certain children be held back a grade to make up for last year. But according to Bracho-Sanchez, this decision shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“We know we have studies … we have data … that show that kids who have been held back a grade actually are at higher risk of dropping out in the future,” she said.

Parents and teachers should help students achieve while staying in their own grade, she said, and parents are encouraged to reach out to their pediatrician if a school recommends holding a child back.

“I think there’s a lot the parents can do,” she said. “Now is the time to come together as a community.”

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(WASHINGTON) — With the delta variant surging, some businesses have begun announcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employees with some exceptions on religious and medical grounds.

The announcements have led to relief for some and strong opposition and protests for others as well as a handful of states introducing legislation to block them.

While there may be opposition to those policies, ultimately the mandates — which also come as efforts stagnate to reach the remaining unvaccinated Americans — are on solid legal ground, public health experts contend.

In the last two weeks, private companies big and small, such as Google, the NFL and Disney (the parent company of ABC News) and many public offices, have announced that vaccines are mandatory for staff before they return to offices in the fall.

In addition, the federal government and some states are issuing testing mandates for any of their public employees who aren’t vaccinated.

In a few localities, such as New York City, proof of vaccination is required for indoor activities such as movies and restaurants — actions that take a harder line to incentivize vaccination.

The subject is tricky given that the vaccines are not fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said vaccines will not be federally mandated and public health officials have largely been trying to incentivize inoculation rather than making it compulsory given the hesitancy in the population.

Dr. Howard Koh, a former assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told ABC News that there will be more organizations that follow suit given the rise in coronavirus cases among the unvaccinated, and they have solid arguments for the policies.

“Businesses want to go forward and they know that their status quo isn’t working,” he told ABC News.

Here’s what to know:

Long-standing legal precedent

States have over a century of legal precedent for mandating vaccines, according to Koh, who currently serves as a professor of the practice of public health Leadership at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

The courts have not determined if the federal government can issue a vaccine mandate, however, the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1905 case Jacobson v. Massachusetts gave state governments the power to issue such a mandate.

The 7-2 decision ruled that Massachusetts’s smallpox vaccine mandate was constitutional stating, “it is for the legislature, and not for the courts, to determine in the first instance whether vaccination is or is not the best mode for the prevention of smallpox and the protection of the public health.”

All states and the District of Columbia have mandated vaccines for ailments such as measles, rubella and polio, for school-age children, although requirements differ by state. There are also a range of exceptions, most commonly medical and religious reasons.

As of June, 44 states and Washington, D.C., grant religious exemptions for people who have religious objections to immunizations, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks the state regulations. Fifteen states that allow philosophical exemptions for children whose parents object to immunizations because of personal, moral or other beliefs, the NCSL found.

The situation is largely different for adults, for whom vaccines are generally not required for employment or in other forums. However, in certain states, such as New York, there is a requirement for health care workers, for instance.

Koh added things get tricky when it comes to a federal mandate.

“The president, from what I can tell, can not announce a federal mandate. No federal vaccination mandate has ever been tested in court,” he said.

More leeway for private businesses

There is some legal uncertainty around the current batch of COVID-19 vaccines because they are being administered under an emergency use authorization from the FDA, Koh said. Opponents to vaccine mandates have argued states or businesses cannot enforce mandates unless the inoculations have received full approval.

But a ruling by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel last month, ruled that Section 564 of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act doesn’t prohibit private businesses from mandating vaccines. States and local municipalities, however, still have the power to prohibit a vaccine mandate within their own offices.

Koh noted that the Justice Department’s ruling has given private and public businesses the legal backing to order their own mandates.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently issued an executive order Tuesday that required vaccination for certain indoor activities, such as the gym, movie theaters and concerts.

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told ABC News’ podcast “Start Here” that similar requirements will be popping up.

“I think it’s not only reasonable, but I think it’s part of what’s going to, I think, nudge more people to get vaccinated while making it even safer for those who are vaccinated to be able to get back to their way of life, which is what we all want,” he told ABC News.

Once the vaccines get full approval, there will be more push from all sectors to mandate the vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday. Pfizer’s approval could come as early as September.

“You’re not going to see a central mandate coming from the federal government, but you’re going to see more universities, colleges, places of business who, once they get the cover of an officially approved vaccine, they’re going to start mandating vaccines,” Fauci said.

There have been some signs that governors would change their rules once the vaccines get the full approval. During a virtual town hall Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told residents he would do just that.

“It would be my expectation that once full authorization or sometimes it’s called licensure is granted, then that vaccine will be added to the list, and then it will work just like the current mumps, measles, rubella, and other vaccines,” he said.

Attempts to block mandates

When it comes to local public government offices, rules for vaccine mandates differ and in a handful of states, mandates on the COVID-19 vaccines have been banned outright until full approval.

As of Aug. 4, six states have enacted legislation in the last year that would block state and municipal offices from mandating a COVID-19 vaccine among staff members. Those six states and another six also have laws that prevent schools from issuing mandates.

Only one state, Montana, has banned private businesses from issuing a vaccine mandate.

Some of the states with bans, such as Alabama, North Dakota and Arkansas, have lagged behind the rest of the country when it comes to vaccinations and seen a jump in cases, according to the CDC. Alabama’s seven-day average of new cases has jumped from nearly 200 at the beginning of July to over 2,500 this week, CDC data shows.

During a news conference Tuesday, President Biden urged governors to lift restrictions on businesses and schools so they could increase vaccination numbers.

“I say to these governors, please help. But if you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way,” he said.

Another way: Testing mandates

Koh noted that the vaccine order that Biden borrowed from New York and other states that required unvaccinated public employees to get tested weekly.

Koh and other experts contend the rule from the president and other leaders would ensure that workspaces would have fewer outbreaks and give those unvaccinated workers a bigger push to get their shots.

It also gives the states firmer legal standing because the testing mandate doesn’t lead to a termination or penalty for the unvaccinated employee, they noted.

“The goal is to make vaccine the norm and the goal is to make vaccine the healthy choice,” Koh said.

Ultimately, Koh said the biggest motivator for vaccine mandates will be from the private businesses. Their efforts will force the public sector to enact stricter measures, he argued.

“Our country has been trying to tame this pandemic for 18 months and counting. The other [vaccination] measures until now have not been completely successful in getting us through this,” Koh said.

This report was featured in the Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, episode of “Start Here,” ABC News’ daily news podcast.

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