Chief medical advisor Dr Anthony Fauci has said that he supports vaccine mandates for air travel and public schools.
'I would support that if you want to get on a plane and travel with other people, that you should be vaccinated,' said Fauci in a promotional video for the Skimm This podcast, which will air on Thursday.
Fauci asserted that for herd immunity to become a reality in the country, the 'overwhelming portion of the population' needed to get vaccinated.
'If we do it in the next six months, it'll happen in the next six months. If we do it in the next two months, it'll happen in the next two months,' he said.
He also expressed his support for a vaccine mandate in public schools, citing that schools have required for students to get vaccinated against infectious diseases for 'decades and decades.'
'I don't know what school you went to, but the school that I went to, you had to be vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella, polio or otherwise you couldn't go to school.
'So it is not something new to mandate vaccine for school children,' Fauci said.
Dr Anthony Fauci said on a promotional video for a podcast that he supported vaccine mandates for air travel and public schools in the US. He added that schools have required for students to get vaccinated for 'decades and decades'
Fauci's remarks come after former FDA chief and Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb said that the vaccine could get emergency approval for children ages 5 to 11 in a matter of weeks
Airlines have already issued vaccine mandates for their crew, and Fauci said he would support a federal vaccine mandate for passengers who want to board planes
On Sunday, former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb, who now sits on the board of directors at Pfizer, said that the emergency use approval process for vaccinating children between the ages of 5 and 11 could be done in a matter of weeks.
Fauci had previously said that President Biden's decision to require that all companies employing more than 100 people must insist on either proof of vaccination or regular COVID tests was merely 'moderate.'
He said on Friday that he would have backed more intense options.
'The president is being somewhat moderate in his demand, if you want to call it that,' Fauci told CNN.
'There are some people who really don't want to get vaccinated but they don't want to lose their job.
'You've got to give them an off lane. And the off-lane is that if you get tested frequently enough and find out you're positive you won't come to work and you won't infect other people.
'It really is somewhat of a compromise there.
'Myself, I would make it just vaccinate or not - but he is trying to be moderate in what he was pronouncing,' he added.
Although no federal vaccine mandate has been issued for air travel, several US airlines have already announced they will be requiring vaccination from employees
Companies who refused to follow Biden's vaccine mandate could face penalties of up to $14,000 for each violation, The Washington Post reported.
The measure could affect 80 million workers, or two thirds of the private workforce in the US.
Fauci's remarks come at a time of profound national division about the vaccine and mask requirements to participate in public life issued by the military, public schools, universities and businesses across the country.
On Thursday, Representative Don Beyer, a democrat, introduced the Safe Travel Act, a bill seeking to require every airline or train service in the US to ask for negative COVID-19 test results or vaccination from passengers, employees and affiliates.
Although no federal vaccine mandate has been issued for air travel, several US airlines have already announced they will be requiring vaccination from employees.
Last week, United Airlines said that employees who refused to get the vaccine will be terminated and those given a religious exemption will be placed on temporary unpaid leave.
Hawaiian Airlines is giving their staff until November 1 to receive their second shot, if they are getting a two-dose vaccine.
Southwest will 'continue to strongly encourage' employees to get vaccinated, but it won't issue a vaccine mandate.
American Airlines will not require employees to show proof of vaccination, but offered workers who got vaccinated by the end of August one extra day of vacation in 2022 as incentive.
Amtrak has announced that all employees must be vaccinated by November 1 and new employees must show proof of vaccination starting October 4.
The Biden administration's bid to reach the unvaccinated Americans has Republican governors threatening lawsuits.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis won an agitated legal battle against a Leon County Circuit after a court reinstated DeSantis' ban on mask mandates.
Parents sued the state on August26 after DeSantis issued the ban, and what unfolded was a back-and-forth battle between the Gov. and school districts who kept enforcing mask use.
Thirteen of Florida's 67 school districts currently have mask requirements.
In retaliation, the state has begun to withhold funds equivalent to monthly salaries of school board members in Alachua and Broward counties, and have begun looking in for other counties that are not playing ball.
In Texas, attorney general Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against six noncompliant school district that have remained enforcing mask mandates after Gov. Gregg Abbott's ban on mask mandates.
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