Negative
The very good news is that my daughter tested negative for covid! It’s a huge, huge relief.
We were pretty sure she’d be okay because as far as we know, she didn’t have close contact with her classmates who tested positive, and she’s really good at keeping her mask on.
That doesn’t mean though that having unvaccinated young kids going to school during a pandemic — with a variant that’s more contagious than when schools were closed last fall — is safe or sensible. And with exceptions based on CDC guidelines for children in school that are less strict than the ones that apply to adults in many contexts.
Putting millions of children at risk every day is a choice that’s being justified as addressing children’s education and social development — which should be a consideration that enters in the equation. This coupled with the fact that most parents have to work (but if people and small businesses were given monthly stimulus — as many other countries did or are still doing during the pandemic — this would be less of a factor) has apparently weighed toward risking our children’s lives.
But with very little data on any long-term effects for covid survivors in adults, much less children, I still don’t get how a majority of people appear to think this is okay. I’ve said it before, and it might seem overly dramatic, but it’s true — I’d rather have a kid who’s behind by a year or so in their education than a dead kid.
Cases are going down in the Memphis area and much of the country, so my fear is that people are going to start to be less careful again and we’ll be in for another wave before we know it. But one glimmer of hope is that if children 5-11 years old can get vaccinated before delta resurges, or another worse variant starts spreading more, that would hopefully be a game-changer for kids, and for everyone.
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