Vaccinated parents should not hesitate to vaccinate their kids
Returning to classrooms safely requires more than just showing up. It demands a serious effort by schools, teachers, parents and students to keep the virus at bay. Wearing face masks properly, good hygiene and distancing practices, and improving school ventilation and filtration are no-brainers. Another challenge is vaccinating eligible children ages 5 to 11. This could make a difference now — and parents ought not hesitate.
On Nov. 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave a green light to the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization for the
Pfizer-biontech two-dose primary series MRNA vaccine for children in this age group. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the vaccine had demonstrated nearly 91% efficacy in preventing COVID-19 among children 5 to 11. The side effects had been no worse than in adults, chiefly a sore arm. Yet so far, only 17.9% of this age group have been fully vaccinated with the primary series.
The holidays and extreme weather across the nation might be partly to blame for the low uptake so far. But another reason is hesitancy among parents, perhaps out of distrust and suspicion, or just taking a wait-andsee attitude. According to the CDC’S Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, there were only a tiny number of cases of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, out of more than 8 million pediatric doses administered from Nov. 4 until Dec. 16. Parents generally are quite willing to accept other vaccines that protect their children, such as the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, or polio, which in the past have seen uptake of more than 90%.
Parents should not be sanguine about the highly transmissible omicron variant. Just as it has swept through the adult population, infections among children are also soaring. The latest figures show that total cases among children broke records at 580,000, more than twice the peak during delta last summer, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Hospitalizations of children are also reaching new heights — in many cases, because of the combination of infection and underlying health conditions. Fortunately, death from COVID remains rare among children; data from 46 states and New York City show 747 deaths during the entire pandemic, a tenth of 1 percent of the total. Little is known yet about long-covid effects on children in the United States, but studies abroad suggest that it is not as frequent in children as adults.
The disconnect is this: Many adults have accepted vaccination for themselves — 73.5% of the population over 18 years old has completed two shots — but not for their eligible school-age children. Coronavirus vaccine mandates for children strike us as too draconian and potentially divisive at this point. But parents should take it upon themselves to get vaccines for their children that will confer a high level of protection, help reduce disruption and keep kids safely in school. That’s a positive thing all around.