The kids are alright

Comes word from Pfizer and BioNTech that their crackerjack COVID-19 vaccine, which is already protecting millions of adults around the globe, also works among adolescents: A trial involving 2,260 youngsters aged 12 to 15 yielded no symptomatic infections — zippo — and no serious side effects.

The first sane reaction to this news is huzzah; we hope and expect that the preliminary results will be confirmed as trials progress, and will be echoed by other COVID vaccine producers. The second reaction is: Whether or not kids get vaccinated en masse, in-person schooling can and must resume in the fall.

This is New York City’s second straight school year upended by the pandemic. The costs have been profound. Seven in 10 are learning remotely, which means they’re not getting the socialization and close attention that only in-the-flesh education can provide. Homeless kids and those with unreliable internet are especially up the creek. Hybrid instruction school days are shorter and a weekly handoff from the classroom teacher to the distanced learning specialist means lots of learning lost in translation.

There’s no definitive measure yet of how much the COVID generation has suffered academically — it doesn’t help that New York State, thinking ignorance to be bliss, doesn’t even want to administer standardized tests — but early indicators are ominous.

Youngsters need to get back behind their desks. And with the city’s educators vaccinated en masse, there’s no good reason they can’t. Let’s be honest: Shuttering schools was primarily about protecting the adults in them from a deadly virus. But while minors can get COVID, it’s only in very rare cases that they get seriously sick from it.

If the general adult public throughout the five boroughs is more and more protected, and if those who work in school buildings have their shots, nothing should stop younger kids from going back, three feet apart and masked, in the fall. Parents who remain queasy about that for whatever reason might opt for remote learning. For the rest, ring the bells.