In anticipation of more COVID-19 vaccine approvals this week, Dr. Elie Berbari, chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Mayo Clinic, says it's good news that younger children will now have more protection against COVID-19.

"It's important that we reach a very high level of vaccination rates to achieve kind of a wall of immunity that could prevent transmission and prevent us from these repeated peaks that we've been dealing with over the last year and a half during this pandemic," says Dr. Berbari. 

In this Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast, Dr. Berbari also talks about the rare cases of myocarditis and how the Food and Drug Administration is monitoring those cases. Dr. Berbari also addresses additional COVID-19 vaccine doses for immunocompromised people, the importance of masking, even if vaccinated, and he answers a number of listener questions.

Watch: Dr. Bebari discuss the latest COVID-19 news.

Read the full transcript.

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For the safety of its patients, staff and visitors, Mayo Clinic has strict masking policies in place. Anyone shown without a mask was either recorded prior to COVID-19 or recorded in a nonpatient care area where social distancing and other safety protocols were followed.

Information in this post was accurate at the time of its posting. Due to the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding, along with guidelines and recommendations, may have changed since the original publication date. 

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