The Covid-19 vaccination campaign has so far been a great success. It has brought hope to millions, led to a loosening of mask restrictions and allowed us to begin to return to normal. It’s been great for children as well as adults. Children need play and socialization to develop and being vaccinated is a passport to return to a life of playing and interacting with their friends. Yet, children are not set to be vaccinated till around September. In some instances, the vaccine rollout simply hasn’t gotten to children yet. Planning events with unvaccinated kids can be very difficult. In this article, I will tell you how to plan around unvaccinated kids.
When planning an event, you need to take into account the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance for holding events. It’s important that everyone wears their masks, and that the proper sanitary protocols are followed. This is especially true considering that many children between the ages of 2 and 11 will have to wait until September to get vaccinated.
A question that many people have is what kinds of activities are safe for children. In speaking with various infectious disease experts and pediatricians, the one thing they agreed on is that there is little agreement about what is considered safe. This is because of the contextual nature of activities. Each family is different and so, what may be safe for one family may be reckless for another.
The research shows that children have a lower likelihood of contracting Covid-19 and an even lower likelihood of dying from it. Yet, despite the lower infection and fatality rates among children, those rates are not zero. The United States currently has 4 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, of whom 14.1% are children. Children make up 0-0.21% of Covid-19 related fatalities. So even at these low rates, there are a lot of children who contract Covid-19. And if your child contracts Covid-19, then low infection rates and low fatality rates are meaningless to you.
If you want to have an event for 2 to 5-year old children, you need to talk with their families to see what is safe for them. It’s important that children keep their masks on at all times, regardless of the activity. You need to exercise an abundance of caution.
Just to give you an idea of how hard it is to judge what is safe, some people ask if children can hug their grandparents. Some people think that the answer is a clear yes, children may hug their grandparents. Yet, some people think that if a child is masked up and the grandparent is immunized, everyone should maintain social distancing.
A general rule of thumb is that when in crowds, wear a mask. The CDC advises people to travel only when they have been fully vaccinated. Keep your social circle small and tell everyone when someone in your family has become infected. When thinking about things for kids to do, it’s best to hold events outdoors. The risks of contracting Covid-19 are much lower outdoors compared to indoors.
The difficulties in judging what is safe and what is not safe show that true safety will only come about when we have all been vaccinated. This is because a person who has not received the vaccine can still contract Covid-19 from a person who has been immunized. The risks are low but they exist.
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