Mom Life: Getting Vaccinated
It’s January 2022, and it seems like there is no end to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although I have gotten my booster shot, my two oldest kids are fully vaccinated, my 9-month old baby girl is not able to get vaccinated yet.
My daughter Lizzy is in 3rd grade, my son Henry is in 1st grade, and baby Sierra goes to a daycare. Currently at the kids’ elementary school, vaccinations for COVID-19 are recommended and masks are required for all kids, staff, and parents. The daycare also requires masks for kids over age 2, and the caretakers are vaccinated.
The worry in me still persists as I watch the school district’s dashboard numbers continue to rise with reported COVID-19 cases broken down by each school. The local news report record numbers of confirmed cases, and over the weekend, we saw that 4 deaths were attributed to the virus in the county.
Then, the other day, Lizzy tells me that her best friend isn’t vaccinated and her parents don’t believe in getting the vaccine. I can’t help think about how polarizing this debate is in our country. It seems to split families into two distinct groups; those who couldn’t wait to get their kids vaccinated, and those who aren’t going to get the vaccine regardless of the recommendations, science, or otherwise.
How did we get to this point where our defiance for the government, our distrust of politicians and the news media has created such a wedge in our society that some of our citizens no longer make decisions based on peer-reviewed medical science, but on their personal beliefs?
My partner Mike and I talked about how Lizzy and Henry had to get all their other immunizations from birth and at regularly checkups at the doctors. And those reports were required documents to attend public school. No one thinks twice about getting our kids vaccinated for measles, chickenpox, or even the flu, but for some reason the COVID-19 vaccine seems to be the exception.
Even as I write this blog post, I hesitate because just the mere mention of this topic can ignite angry backlash from people who have their own beliefs and may feel the need to comment on the decision I made to get my family vaccinate for COVID-19.
Every family has the right to make decisions that is best for them, but should there be guidelines set forth when it comes to public health?
When kids attend public school, the concern becomes when personal decisions may impede the welfare of other families and their health. Lizzy also has a friend in school who has an underlying condition and in our family, we have a baby who isn’t able to get the vaccine yet, so having kids in school who aren’t vaccinated increases the risk of spreading COVID-19 to those who are most vulnerable.
Getting vaccinated becomes a matter of making sure that others in our community who may live with grandparents or have other underlying conditions aren’t at risk of contracting the virus.
The Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in K-12 Schools, which was updated on January 13, 2022 highlights these key points:
- Vaccination is the leading public health prevention strategy to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Promoting vaccination can help schools safely return to in-person learning as well as extracurricular activities and sports.
- CDC recommends universal indoor masking by all students (ages 2 years and older), staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.
- In addition to universal indoor masking, CDC recommends schools maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms to reduce transmission risk. When it is not possible to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet, such as when schools cannot fully re-open while maintaining these distances, it is especially important to layer multiple prevention strategies, such as screening testing.
Living in this day and age with information overload, are people just unsure of where to go on the internet or via social media to get accurate information?
Or is there so much misinformation trolling the web and the search engine and social media algorithms are skewing our ability to decipher between what is real information from reliable sources and what are “fake news” fueled by conspiracy theories?
For those who share my views on getting vaccinated, I am preaching to the choir, but for those who disagree with my point of view, there is no convincing them otherwise. All I can do is provide are some links to information that may help dissimilate the facts vs. the myths, so people can make informed decisions.
If it can help save one life, convince one person to at least consider getting vaccinated for COVID-19, and help minimize the patient loads at our local hospitals, maybe that is all we can hope for to bring an end to this pandemic.
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