Like many parents I am trying to judge the risk of Covid-19 exposure at school for my under-12 children, and finding it challenging. They seem quite likely to be exposed, moderately likely to be infected, unlikely to experience dangerous symptoms, likely to infect others who are unvaccinated, and unlikely to infect others who are vaccinated (including parents and grandparents), who are in turn unlikely to experience dangerous symptoms. That all adds up to an acceptable risk to me. The one risk above we have some control over is the risk of exposure, and that is why I support the reasonable precautions the school district is taking, including masking. Once children have the opportunity to be vaccinated and parents have had a reasonable period of time to take advantage of that opportunity, I think the masks should come off. Adults who choose not be vaccinated are irresponsible in my view, especially if they are over 50 or so, but they have been given the chance and chosen to accept the risk, although some may not fully understand it.

This statement in an article in The Week caught my eye:

That’s feasible because most of these questions are familiar, and familiarity gives us a working knowledge on which to base our calls. I’ve climbed trees and drank beer and gone to sleepovers, and I know firsthand the advantages of driving a car. I put my children in our car without a second thought, though vehicle accidents are the second-highest cause of children’s deaths in the United States, because I believe (as almost everyone does) the benefits exceed the risks. I never considered doing otherwise. I certainly didn’t agonize over the decision the way many Americans are now agonizing over the best choices for kids and COVID-19.

The Week

I do not accept the risks of daily car travel! The article includes some Twitter screen shots which in turn link back to a New York Times article (which I do not subscribe to because lying about weapons of mass destruction) about risks to children. According to these, car accidents are the second most likely cause of death for children under 14, killing about 2 out of 100,000. Incidentally, drowning is the top cause of death for ages 1 to 4 and cancer for 5 to 14. The death risk due to Covid is an entire order of magnitude lower at about 0.2 per 100,000. The only other communicable disease that even makes the list of flu/pneumonia, which kills children at higher rates, even during the pandemic. We should remember that one reason these things are at the top of the list is that child mortality is pretty rare, and we have eliminated many of the communicable diseases that used to kill children, or come up with highly effective ways to deal with them like vaccination and simply keeping kids well hydrated with clean water when they are sick. Shockingly to me, both homicide and suicide are pretty high on the list as causes of death for children.

I put my children in a car when there is somewhere we need or want to go, and a car is clearly the best way to get there. But I have chosen a place for our family to live where nearly all school, work, shopping, and the majority of recreational trips can be done on foot. This nearly eliminates the single most risky thing most U.S. children do every day. I also want to state for the record, as I have many times and you might be tired of hearing it if you are regular reader, that U.S. street/sidewalk/intersection/bike lane designs are unnecessarily dangerous and children are dying unnecessarily just because our politicians and professionals are ignorant of international best practices or too cynical to adopt them. Come on, let’s do something about this for our kids.

Incidentally, I’m a childhood cancer survivor and obviously I am grateful for the technology, health care workers, and most of all my parents who got me through that. We need to keep up the cancer research. Who knows what role pollution plays in childhood cancer, vs. random chance? But working on pollution, especially air pollution, is a no-brainer so let’s do that too. Living in walkable, bikeable communities where most trips can be taken without internal combustion would eliminate a lot of air pollution and keep kids safer in multiple ways.