"Look, it's real simple. We have a pandemic for those who haven't gotten a vaccination. It's that basic, that simple," Biden said at a town-hall event in Ohio that was broadcast on CNN.

"Ten thousand people have recently died. Nine thousand nine hundred and fifty of them, thereabouts, are people who hadn't been vaccinated," he said.

Biden fielded roughly a dozen questions from Democrats and Republicans about the economy and crime, infrastructure and the filibuster, in a Cincinnati district that Trump won by a heavy margin. The entire audience was vaccinated, the news network noted.

Swiftly rising coronavirus cases across the United States and abroad have fueled fears of a resurgent pandemic and rattled stock markets as the highly contagious Delta variant appears to be taking hold.

Many of the new US outbreaks are in parts of the country where COVID-19 vaccinations have lagged. The White House's vaccination efforts have met waves of disinformation and skepticism.

Biden expressed optimism that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may approve new vaccines for children under 12 as soon as the end of August, ahead of previous estimates.

"My expectation talking to the group of scientists we put together ... is that sometime maybe in the beginning of the school year, at the end of August, beginning of September, October, they'll get a final approval," Biden said.

He also said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would likely issue guidance encouraging children who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus to wear masks in schools.

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