The nation’s top health officials urged high school and college-age Americans to get vaccinated on Tuesday, pointing to the progress made so far in lowering case numbers and deaths as more people have gotten the shot.

What You Need To Know

  • Officials urged young people to get vaccinated in a briefing Tuesday, asking them to help "finish the job" of driving down COVID-19 cases and deaths

  • The seven-day average of deaths has reached its lowest since March 2020, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said

  • Since the CDC recommended the Pfizer vaccine for 12 to 15 year-olds last week, more than 600,000 have been vaccinated
  • The CDC director also said that her agency was reviewing mask guidance for schools and travel, given the announcement on masks last week

The U.S. is averaging about 500 deaths per day, the lowest since March 2020, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. She urged young people to join the adults who’d gotten vaccinated to push the numbers down even further. 

One White House COVID adviser, Andy Slavitt, made a personal appeal to young people by revealing that his son is still suffering from symptoms six months after contracting COVID-19, including a fast heart rate, shortness of breath and regular flu symptoms. 

“His hands are cold to the touch. Neither he nor his parents, my wife and I, are sure how long this will last,” Slavitt said in a briefing Tuesday morning. 

“I know it's easy when you're young to imagine that these things don't affect you. A vaccine may feel unnecessary,” he added. “But we are still learning about the long term effects of COVID.”

Since the CDC recommended the Pfizer vaccine for 12 to 15 year-olds last week, more than 600,000 have been vaccinated, Dr. Walensky said, including her own son. 

She appealed to teens and young adults to get the shot and join the 60% of U.S. adults who’d gotten at least one dose as of Tuesday, per CDC data.

“We have truly made tremendous strides across the country to ensure people have access to vaccines,” she said. “If you haven't yet been vaccinated, perhaps you will consider being our reason to celebrate one more.”

In the same briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci, outlined the effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against the coronavirus variants circulating in the country, showing data about how well vaccine antibodies neutralize the virus.

“The current vaccines that we are all using, that we've been speaking about, would be at least partially and probably quite protective,” Fauci said.

He explained that while more data is needed for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, he expects that the shot has a similar effect on variants.

On Tuesday, White House COVID adviser Slavitt pointed to the availability of the vaccine across the country for young people and all Americans, including at about 20,000 sites offering walk-in shots. 

“For the first time since the pandemic began, COVID cases are down in all 50 states. We are winning the war on the virus, and we need you to help us finish the job,” he said. “Getting vaccinated — it's something you can do to protect yourself and your family. It will help you, and all of us return closer to normal life.”

Vaccines are expected to be approved for children under 12 by the end of the year, Dr. Fauci said. 

For now, the CDC still recommends masks in schools and at summer camps, especially since vaccines just opened to high school-age Americans shortly before the end of the school year. They're also still required on all public transportation.

CDC Director Walensky said her agency was beginning to review that guidance in the context of the new mask recommendation for fully vaccinated people announced last week.

“We have thousands of pages of guidance related to all sorts of sectors, businesses, schools,” she said. “All of our guidance for this school year should be unchanged, and we are now working diligently to work through all of our active guidance in the context of this new science related to fully vaccinated people.”