With the Vaccine Available for Kids, Parents Can Finally Take a Breath
It’s been a long haul for everyone, but parents of little kids have had it pretty bad
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In March 2020, my daughter’s school closed, supposedly for two weeks to flatten the curve. Remember when it was all about flattening the curve and we were all in this together?
All in this together has devolved to the point that the extremist hate group, the Proud Boys, make appearances at school board meetings across America protesting school mask mandates.
Anti-mask protesters target school boards
In Illinois, where I live, there have been daily protests in front of schools with anti-maskers screaming anti-Semitic remarks at little children trying to enter their school building for a day of learning.
There is a lawsuit filed against the Illinois governor and the Illinois State Board of Education decrying the statewide mask mandate in schools. The lawsuit doesn’t end there. These people don’t want kids that have been exposed to Covid to be forced to quarantine either.
It’s been a nightmare navigating this landscape of hate-filled, angry, crazed anti-maskers who also don’t believe in vaccines nor believe Covid can cause any harm to children.
Record numbers of pediatric hospitalizations filled hospitals this summer
Set against the backdrop of these surreal fights over wearing a piece of cloth over one’s face to stop people from dying were the massive numbers of hospitalizations for children, mainly in southern states, this summer.
Adding to that stress, you could turn on the news at any time this summer and into fall to hear the pleading pediatricians begging for parents to get vaccinated, wear masks, and protect their children.
What is the big deal about wearing a face covering?
In the beginning, I felt that my unvaccinated daughter was somewhat protected from the fact that everyone around us wore masks. And then the CDC had their big announcement (which later had to be reversed) that you only needed to wear a face mask if you were unvaccinated.
This had the effect of nobody wearing a face mask. Knowing that 100% of Illinoisians had not had the vaccine, I was pretty sure plenty of the unmasked people I encountered while out with my daughter were not vaccinated.
While the rest of the vaccinated world celebrated getting back to normal life with their vaccine cards and their “hot girl summer”, parents of unvaccinated kids continued to trudge along in much the same way we had been all along. Except for this time, there was no, we’re all in this together. Parents were alone.
Then Delta hit, and everything changed and Illinois put another mask mandate in effect. Masks were mandated in the schools, and all public places for everyone, not just the unvaccinated.
This was a relief for many parents of unvaccinated kids. But there was still the nagging worry the anti-mask crazies might get their way, and schools could become mask optional.
Finally, vaccines are available to kids
But now, the vaccines are out for kids aged 5 to 11. My daughter will get her Covid vaccine very soon. And with two doses of Pfizer, by the middle of December, she should be fully vaccinated.
The excellent news is the Covid vaccine for children has been found to be 90.7% effective. The side effects are minimal. There has been some concern about myocarditis, but this condition has been extremely rare, much rarer than the effects of Covid. (This article from NPR does a good job answering questions about the vaccine for children.)
Once my daughter is fully vaxxed, I would love to say to the anti-maskers, have at it, you crazy, crazy people. Run your human petri dish experiments on your own families. Mine is finally protected. But sadly, the littlest of all, kids under five years are still unprotected. And it will most likely be months before the vaccine is available to them. People with weakened immune systems are also still vulnerable.
Unfortunately, we are all still in this together, whether we like it or not. When anti-maskers lament their “personal freedoms” they aren’t thinking beyond themselves. They can’t seem to consider the personal freedom the rest of us have not to die.
But the good news is, the next step is here. A very safe and very well-tested vaccine is now available to the next age group. Maybe parents of kids aged 5 to 11 can put their heads above water once again.
