Because a vaccine is not yet authorized for young children and may not be for some time, families are left in a particularly difficult position heading into this school year.
Students are welcomed on the first day of school at Normont Elementary School in Los Angeles on Aug. 16, 2021. But as the United States confronts its worst moment of the pandemic since the winter, there is a group of 48 million people who do not have the option of getting a vaccine: children younger than 12.
Polls show that a considerable number of parents do not intend to get their children vaccinated even when shots become available. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that 25%-30% of parents with younger children would “definitely not” get them vaccinated. A Gallup poll found that 46% do not plan to do so.
Others are less worried but equally frustrated as they head into another school year marked by pandemic rules. In some cases, mandates are being applied most stringently to young children not eligible for a vaccine. On the first day of school, Ellis rose before dawn, sat on her front porch with her husband and made a “game-time decision,” she said, to drop her son off at school. Watching him walk up the steps, carrying a Hot Wheels backpack, some part of her became resigned to the possibility that he may get infected.The data on coronavirus cases in children is imperfect, but by most accounts, serious illness has been rare.
He said he had vaccinated his six children for other diseases but was not yet ready to do so for the coronavirus because of the lack of long-term studies.Todd Newlin, 40, of Ramsey, Minnesota, near Minneapolis, said that he and his wife were vaccinated and planned to vaccinate their children, ages 4, 9 and 11, when a shot became available. He is open to the vaccines, in part, because he wants his family to be able to travel, go unmasked and live life as normally as possible.
In Texas, where school mask mandates are banned, Jason Helms, 39, of Fort Worth said he became alarmed on the first day of school when his 6-year-old daughter’s teacher was not wearing a mask.He was particularly concerned about exposing his 3-year-old daughter, who is vulnerable to respiratory problems.
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