RELATED: The Riskiest Things You’re Doing After You’re Vaccinated, CDC Says. When responding to an attendee concerned for the safety of children returning to classrooms this fall, President Biden hinted that new guidance is coming from the nation’s top infectious disease agency that would revive a mask mandate recommendation for the upcoming school year aimed at protecting students who can’t yet get vaccinated. “The CDC is going to say that what you should do is, everyone under the age of 12 should probably be wearing masks in school,” Biden said. “That’s probably what’s going to happen.” Biden then clarified that other students might also be subject to the same rules depending on whether or not they’ve received their doses of the Pfizer vaccine. “Those over the age of 12 who are able to get vaccinated—if you’re vaccinated, you shouldn’t wear a mask, if you aren’t vaccinated, you should be wearing a mask,” he said. Biden also announced that the coming months might also see young children under the age of 12 finally become eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. “They’re not promising me any specific date, but my expectation, talking to the scientists is that sometime, maybe in the beginning of the school year, at the end of August, beginning of September, October, you’ll get a final approval” for vaccinating kids, he said. But Biden emphasized that the decision was not being influenced in any way by his administration and that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and CDC would be solely responsible for the call. “I do not tell any scientists what they should do. I do not interfere. They’re trying to figure out whether or not there’s a vaccination that affects one child at such-and-such an age and not another child,” he explained. The president also admitted that enforcing the mask mandate and verifying students’ vaccination status might be difficult in some school settings. “It’s going to get a little bit tight in terms of, well, are Mom or Dad being honest that Johnny did or did not get vaccinated? That’s going to raise questions,” Biden said. “It’s a matter of community responsibility.” RELATED: The WHO Just Released a Major Warning About This “Dangerous” Vaccine Trend. The news comes just days after the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that all students aged two or older should wear masks when returning to school this year, regardless of whether or not they’ve been vaccinated. The group also suggested that all teachers and staff wear masks, emphasizing that such safety protocols were needed to bring back in-person learning as soon as possible, NBC News reports. “We need to prioritize getting children back into schools alongside their friends and their teachers—and we all play a role in making sure it happens safely,” Sonja O’Leary, chair of the AAP Council on School Health, said in a statement. “Combining layers of protection that include vaccinations, masking, and clean hands hygiene will make in-person learning safe and possible for everyone.” Besides addressing the topic of wearing a mask to school, Biden also took time to urge eligible Americans to go out and get their shots if they haven’t done so already. “We have a pandemic for those who haven’t gotten the vaccination—it’s that basic, that simple,” Biden said. “If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in the IC unit, and you’re not going to die.“ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb But the president also pointed out that getting vaccinated was also an important step in protecting the overall population. “It’s gigantically important that we all act like Americans who care about our fellow Americans,” Biden said. RELATED: If You Take Medication for This, You May Still Need a Mask, CDC Says.
