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Barack Obama, Anthony Fauci make ‘disturbing’ visit to D.C. school to urge kids to get vaccine

December 1, 2021 | | Print Article

Former President Barack Obama and Biden administration chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci made a surprise visit to a Washington, D.C., elementary school where they engaged with students and parents standing in a COVID-19 vaccine line.

https://twitter.com/debbietruong/status/1465793523869962250

“Dr. Fauci and former presidents Barack Obama and Teddy Roosevelt made a surprise visit to Kimball Elementary to encourage folks to get vaxxed,” Washington Post White House correspondent Cleve R. Wootson Jr., noted on Twitter.

Obama offered fist bumps and encouragement to the young students in line, telling them, “Good job, guys,” in one video clip posted online by Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller.

“Together, they spread the word about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, and encouraged parents to get shots for their children,” the AP reported, describing the purpose of Obama’s and Fauci’s visit.

“With the emergence of the omicron variant, experts say getting vaccinated is important,” the AP reported.

“We are just getting through the holiday season and we have one more thing to be thankful for, which is that we can get kids vaccinated if they’re between the ages of 5 and 11,” Obama told a crowd of more than 50 students, teachers and parents at one point, according to the Washington Post. “Nobody really loves getting a shot. I don’t love getting a shot. But I do it because it’s going to help keep me healthy.”

That said, children have never been at great risk of becoming dangerously infected by any of the COVID variants. As to the latest, omicron, the scientist who discovered it says that cases are very mild.

As such, South African Dr. Angelique Coetzee has urged people to remain calm, saying that patients who contract the new variant are only experiencing “extremely mild symptoms.”

“Their symptoms were so different and so mild from those I had treated before,” she said, adding “currently there’s no reason for panicking as we don’t see severely ill patients.”

“The most predominant clinical complaint is severe fatigue for one or two days, with then the headache and the body aches and pain. Some of them will have what they call a scratchy throat and some will have a cough — a dry cough, but it’s not a constant cough, it comes and goes. And that’s more or less the big symptoms that we have seen,” Coetzee added.

Nevertheless, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday expanded booster shot recommendations, noting that all Americans 18 and older should get one.

Later, President Biden attempted to tamp down concerns by saying that while the omicron variant presents “a cause for concern,” it is “not a cause for panic.”

Omicron cases have been confirmed in 20 countries but so far none have been identified in the U.S., the Post added.

Several social media users responded negatively to the joint visit, however.

 

Missy Halsey
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