‘Cocoon’ your kids
That’s the advice of Dr. Francisco Duque to parents and family members who are worried sick about the growing number of young COVID-19 patients, from babies to teens and up.
As explained by the Secretary, if there are five people in one household and four of them have been fully vaccinated, the fifth person who is the youngest among them should enjoy a layer of protection even without vaccination. Four out of five spells 80 percent immunity, so this cocoon concept is as good as or 10 percent better than herd immunity.
It’s the best argument yet for adults and especially senior citizens who are still vaccine-hesitant to have themselves inoculated. While the number of infections continues to rise across all age groups, DOH’s confirmation that youngsters are as much at risk from the Delta variant could keep their elders awake at night. Keeping them on their toes should be enough, if they would just be a bit more vigilant than before. Which means, get themselves vaccinated already and give the child a wall of protection at home.
Big numbers don’t adequately reflect our anxieties – e.g., 48,000 children have been infected so far; 3,000 in Cebu; 1,143 in June alone – considering that kiddies are not being tested or they’re asymptomatic. When the pandemic was in its initial stages last year, Spain had record numbers of transmissions which experts traced to, among other factors, the multi-generational families living in one household where bonding with besos and abrazos is the norm and the style. One year later, it’s the same family closeness that is being credited for the success of Spain’s vaccination campaign.
Do kiddies need to be vaccinated? Starting at what age? It’s not as if we had an oversupply of vaccines, yet how long can we postpone the need, just because children are not a priority? Going by the cocoon concept, adults at home should get jabbed or consider themselves negligent parents/guardians for failing to shield their young.
Strangely enough, or not strangely, reports coming out of international and local media suggest similarities of children as young as three weeks old getting sick, pediatric cases spiking possibly due to the Delta variant, and cluster infections in shelters.