Ask Amy: Parents ponder COVID risk to their kids
Dear Amy: We have a few family events coming up that will include adult cousins who have been vocal about not getting vaccinated, along with their children who are too young to be vaccinated.
We are vaccinated, but we have children who are not old enough to be vaccinated and who would also attend the events.
The gatherings will include time indoors without masks and I do not know if the cousins would agree to even get COVID tests before the events.
I doubt that discussing these issues with the cousins would be productive.
My sense is that they feel strongly about these issues and that we would create conflict by mentioning these concerns, and we would not sway them anyway.
We would be sad to miss the family events, but also do not want to put our own unvaccinated kids at risk. How should we proceed?
– Worried
Dear Worried: If you don’t want to put your unvaccinated children at risk (and of course you don’t!), then you already know the answer.
With COVID cases on the rise and with variants seemingly on the ascent, it would seem foolish, to say the least, to willfully congregate with unvaccinated people indoors.
According to a report using national data compiled by the American Academy of Pediatrics (aap.org), “As of August 12, over 4.41 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. Over 121,000 cases were added the past week, a continuing substantial increase. After declining in early summer, child cases have steadily increased since the beginning of July.”
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