WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser warned in an interview with the Financial Times that a broad refusal of vaccines against COVID-19 may undermine efforts to immunize children and contain future illness outbreaks.
Anti-vaccine attitudes “might spill over into that kind of a negative attitude towards childhood vaccinations,” Anthony Fauci was quoted as saying. “If you fall back on vaccines against common vaccine-preventable childhood diseases, that’s where you wind up getting avoidable and unnecessary outbreaks.”
Political divisions over U.S. public health are hurting efforts to fight the pandemic, he added, with some states failing to promote vaccines and Congress holding back funding.
