Dr. Fauci Just Said 8 Words Every American Should Hear

With 90 million Americans still not vaccinated, and even vaccinated passing the virus to others, an alarming fact has arisen: You could unwittingly pass the COVID Delta variant on to an unvaccinated kid. Because more and more of them are getting sick. That's one warning from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the President and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who spoke with CNBC's Closing Bell about the rise in hospitalizations, when you should get your booster and when this new surge might peak. Read on for 8 life-saving pieces of advice—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don't miss these Sure Signs You Have "Long" COVID and May Not Even Know It.

"When you look at what's happening in pediatric hospitals throughout the country, you have to factor in the situation with Delta. Delta is a very highly transmissible virus so without a doubt, we have seen more of anybody who's unvaccinated getting infected and that includes children," said Dr. Fauci. "So, this idea that children don't get infected or children don't transmit, that's not the case with Delta and quantitatively, the more children that will get infected, there will be a certain proportion of them, it will be a small proportion, but there will be a proportion of them that will get seriously ill and will be in the hospital which is the reason why when you go around in the red hot zones, the places where there's a lot of transmission, you find that in the pediatric hospitals, you have a lot more children who are in the hospital not only with, with COVID-19 but with other respiratory infections like respiratory syncytial virus. So, children are not exempt from getting severe disease even though, relatively speaking, when you compare them with people like the elderly or adults, they are less likely to get severe disease. But not so completely exempt that you don't see a lot of them in the hospital."

When will this Delta surge peak? "It's very difficult to predict," said Dr. Fauci. "We've seen in the UK that after several weeks of a high acceleration, it's turned around. There's a lot we can do about it and to ensure that it not only continues to accelerate but it really goes down to a very low level and that's the thing we've been talking about all the time and that is we have 90 million people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet gotten vaccinated. So, we want to vaccinate the unvaccinated to the highest extent that we possibly can, the greatest proportion possible, but also … in order to maintain the durability and the height of the protection among those who've already been vaccinated, we're recommending a booster dose that I believe will go a long way to continuing a high level of protection. So, it's within our power to do something about turning that acceleration around. It's just up to us to implement it."

"I don't think we can say that," said Dr. Fauci. "I doubt it very seriously. You know, I believe that the third boost of a two shot regimen, namely what we're recommending for those who've gotten the mRNA vaccine, we're noticing in clinical studies that the level of antibodies that that induces is very, very high so what we're hoping for is that that third shot really gets you up to such a high level that not only is it highly protective but it's very durable. That's what we're hoping for. We can't guarantee. I doubt seriously but I don't know for sure that we're going to be able to say, we're going to no longer need boosts every X number of months. I don't think that that's going to be the case. I think this third shot will take us a long way."

Want to get your booster early? "It depends on exactly when you got it. There should obviously be a range," said Dr. Fauci. "We're trying to do it in an orderly fashion talking about eight months, which would start around the third week in September, but in all things like this it's a range, you know, six to nine months or what have you. The one thing you don't want to do is if you get it too soon for example, if I got my second shot today and then I heard on TV or in the news that a booster will be helpful and decide in two to three weeks I want to go and get the third shot, that would be counterproductive because one of the reasons that we believe the boost works is that you give the immune response of the second shot enough time to mature and make it ready so that when you give a boost, it really jacks up the response a lot so you don't want to make it too soon, but there will be a range of when you can get it even though optimally, we'd like it to be eight months. I believe people are going to be doing it at six months or so. Human nature itself is going to tell you that people will be doing that."

RELATED: I'm a Doctor and Here's How to Not Catch Delta

Dr. Fauci said vaccinations were rising again. "We went from a couple of million people a day vaccinating, we went down to around 250,000 and then when things started to really go bad, a certain segment of the unvaccinated started to realize that, you know, we're in trouble. We better get vaccinated and we're now the last few days have gone up to like a million people," said Dr. Fauci. "So, we went, we peaked up, we went down and now we're back up. Next thing is that as soon as the vaccines get fully approved by the FDA, which we hope is going to be very soon, two things are going to happen. People are going to say well I was waiting all along to get the full approval, now that it is, I'll get vaccinated. I think you're going to have a certain proportion of the people that were not vaccinated are going to do that. Next, what will happen is that you will find enterprises, organizations empowered to start mandating vaccines such as universities and colleges saying, if you want to attend in person, you have to be vaccinated. You will have places of employment particularly big organizations that employ hundreds of thousands of people will be saying if you want to work for us, you've got to get vaccinated. They were hesitant to do that before because you didn't have the backup of a full approval of the vaccination. So, I think we can put a dent in that group of people who are thus far not getting vaccinated that they will now come along and get vaccinated."

RELATED: These 9 States to Have Next Outbreak, Virus Expert Warns

"Is it safe to take our unvaccinated kids Dr. Fauci on vacation, on planes right now?" asked the CNBC host. "It really depends where you're going, where you're coming from, the level of infection," said Dr. Fauci. "Right now, travel is a situation where we know that in the process of travel, we know the lines at the airport and things like that, planes themselves, when you look at it, it seems to be relatively safe. One of the things you want to do when you have unvaccinated children, you do two things. You surround them with people who are vaccinated, such as in the school system which is why we want all the teachers and the personnel in the school to be vaccinated, and then when you have people like younger children who can't be vaccinated, that's why you want to wear masks to protect yourselves and to prevent you from infecting them."6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

RELATED: 6 COVID Mistakes That Could Cost You Your Life

When asked about the Florida or Texas laws against face mask mandates in schools, Fauci said: "I don't want to directly address the governors because then it becomes a personal, semi political thing. The only thing that I can do is say what the right public health approach is, get as many people vaccinated as you possibly can and, and take a look at and seriously consider the recommendations of the CDC about mask wearing, mask wearing in schools to protect the children, mask wearing indoors even if you are vaccinated when you're in a zone like Florida and Texas that has a high degree of infection. Those are simple public health measures that should be adhered to."

RELATED: Dr. Fauci Just Shared 7 Key Points About Boosters

Follow Fauci's fundamentals and help end this pandemic, no matter where you live—get vaccinated ASAP; if you live in an area with low vaccination rates, wear an N95 face mask, don't travel, social distance, avoid large crowds, don't go indoors with people you're not sheltering with (especially in bars), practice good hand hygiene, and to protect your life and the lives of others, don't visit any of these 35 Places You're Most Likely to Catch COVID.