White House chief COVID doctor says children should get vaccinated, even if they've already been infected

White House Chief COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said Tuesday morning that all children should get vaccinated even if they have natural immunity from a previous COVID infection.

Although children are the least likely to be hospitalized or receive complications from COVID, the FDA approved COVID-19 vaccines for children ages six months to five years old last week, rolling out the shots for the first time on Tuesday morning.

Despite data from the CDC estimating that 70 percent of children in the United States have already been infected with COVID, Dr. Jha encouraged parents to vaccinate their small children to add an "extra layer of protection."

"Covid has been quite common in children actually we think almost 70 percent of kids have ended up getting infected with Covid," Jha told CBS mornings on Tuesday.

"Still worth getting the vaccine, it really offers an extra layer of protection and what vaccines do is they keep kids out of the hospital and that's why they are so effective," Dr. Jha explained. "And everybody deserves that level of protection. Even if your child has been previously infected the strong recommendation is to get your child protected."

Parents will be able to choose from either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approved both vaccines for the young age group.