How do I keep kids safe heading back to school?
Asking for a Friend is a Star series that tackles readers’ tricky vaccine questions with advice from medical experts. In the third instalment, pediatrician Dr. Nisha Thampi outlines what adults can do to protect young, unvaccinated children as they go back to school.
The problem
Now that summer is coming to an end, your kids are prepared finally to ditch virtual classes and return to in-person learning. You know how important it is for your kids to go back to school, but you’re still worried about their risks of getting COVID-19, as they have been too young to get the vaccine. What’s the best way to keep your kids protected?
It takes a village to keep kids safe
Dr. Nisha Thampi, a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, says kids will face the same risks they faced in the last school year as they spend prolonged periods of time indoors interacting with others.
What’s different this time is there’s the newer, more transmissible Delta variant. Although children have been less likely to develop severe COVID-19 symptoms, it’s unclear whether kids will be more vulnerable to the newer strain.
“There’s some reassurance that kids generally do well, but we have seen severe disease, particularly in kids living with disability, obesity and (who are) immunocompromised,” Thampi says.
Thampi has yet to see an increase in kids hospitalized for COVID-19, although she’s seeing kids getting other respiratory viruses more often. This could be because kids are now exposed to non-COVID viruses more often than when they were required to stay home.
What’s also different now is that more age groups are eligible for vaccination — and Thampi strongly encourages people to get their two doses, especially for those who interact with children regularly. This will help improve the efficacy of other public health measures, such as wearing masks and washing hands.
“I think we can all appreciate how much kids have given up in school and in social interactions in the last 18 months in order to keep the adults and older, frail adults in our communities safe,” Thampi says. “I think it’s our responsibility to rally around them and minimize further disruptions to their learning, because for many children, in-person learning is a much more productive learning environment for them.”
Thampi says it’s also a good idea to minimize large group gatherings outside of school settings. And if you’re feeling even the mildest of symptoms, stay home and recover before seeing unvaccinated kids again.
“(Adults) have a part to play, too,” she says. “It’s not just when we’re with our kids, but it’s how we socialize as adults outside of the home, or how we interact with people outside of home. Every interaction that we have can make a difference for our children’s health and their learning.”
To help make informed decisions for their kids, parents and guardians should familiarize themselves with COVID-19 rates in their communities, as well as local public health measures and reopening plans for their children’s schools, Thampi suggests.
As families prepare their kids’ return to school, people need to consider the safety of their actions, not just for our health, but also for the health and well-being of our children.
Thampi hopes that, with improved community measures, this school year won’t be as “chaotic” as last year’s was for both kids and families who rely on schools for education and child care.
“(In-person learning) is not just about the learning; it’s the socialization. It’s the mental, social and physical development space for them,” Thampi says. “A lot of that has been missed by kids in the last year-and-a-half.”