CDC director weighs in on whether kids should go trick-or-treating on Halloween between the pandemic

September 28, 2021: -On Sunday, Kids should be able to go trick-or-treating this Halloween with a couple of caveats, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said.

“I certainly hope so,” Walensky said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” when asked if it’s safe for children to go trick-or-treating this year. “If you are able to be outdoors, absolutely,” she added.

The head of the CDC recommends that parents and kids “limit crowds” on Halloween.

“I would not necessarily go to a crowded Halloween party, but I think that we should let our kids go trick-or-treating in the groups,” Walensky said. “I hope that we can do that this year.”

On Monday, Pfizer and BioNTech are announcing a smaller dose of their Covid-19 vaccine is safe and generates a “robust” immune response in a clinical trial of kids of 5 to 11 age.

Pfizer CEO and Chairman Albert Bourla says that the data would soon be presented to the Food and Drug Administration. “It’s a question of days, not weeks,” Bourla said.

“Then it is up to FDA to be able to review the data, and come to their conclusions, and approve it or not,” Bourla said. “If they approve it, we will be ready with our manufacturers to provide this new formulation of the vaccine,” Bourla added.

The vaccine for kids aged 5 to 11 is “one-third of the dose we are giving to the rest of the population.”

In the meantime, as schools are back in session, the CDC’s Walensky told “This Week” that kids who get the coronavirus are not getting it while they are at school.

“Our science has demonstrated that the disease generally comes in from the community,” Walensky says. “When schools are practicing a proper mitigation and prevention strategy, it is not where their transmission is happening,” he added.

If safety precautions are not happening at schools, the transmission is much higher, the CDC chief said.

96% have stayed open this school year in most of the schools, Walensky said.

“And yet, we also published a study out of Arizona that demonstrated that places that without the masks in place were three and a half times likely to have outbreaks than places that did have masks in place,” Walensky said.