Yes, Children Are Dying From Covid

Please get the fucking shot.

Across the US, 1200 children a day are being admitted to hospitals with Covid. Not all of them are going home.

Some states are worse than others. Pediatric hospitalizations are highest in states where vaccination and mask wearing have been politicized to the point of absurdity — Alabama, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.

In Alabama, 9 children were being supported on ventilators as of Thursday, August 18 and 113 were suffering from Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), a condition that’s been linked to COVID-19 and can be serious, even deadly. Earlier this month, a 17-year-old Alabama high school senior died from the virus. By all accounts, he was a remarkable kid.

In a New Orleans Children’s hospital, a 2-month old baby struggled to breathe while his mother prayed. The baby’s parents were vaccinated, but they’re the exception in New Orleans, where only 40% of people eligible for the vaccine actually got the shot.

The baby got Covid from some unvaccinated, unmasked motherfucker who will never fully understand the astonishing amount of pain their poor decision heaped on this family.

On Friday, the Tampa Bay Times reported that 215 kids were hospitalized with Covid in Florida. Meanwhile, Governor DeSantis continues to threaten to defund schools who impose mask mandates even as more and more children are getting sick — and dying — ase the delta variant burns through Florida’s schools.

In California, an unvaccinated teacher with Covid symptoms made the baffling decision to remove her mask so she could read to the kids at storytime. She infected half the children in her classroom. Those children went on to infect other children, parents, and siblings.

There is a perfect storm brewing and our children are directly in its path. As schools open, mask mandates disappear, distance learning options are scarce (or nonexistent), and delta proliferates, more and more children are getting sick.

One CDC-backed lab predicts that elementary schools that don’t enforce mask wearing and regular testing could see 75% of their student population infected within the first three months of school. Some of those kids will end up in the hospital.

Some of them will die.

And if delta floating around classrooms filled with unmasked and unvaccinated children doesn’t terrify you, consider that vaccines for children aged 5–11 may not be available until 2022. That means that by December, hundreds — maybe thousands — of children will be stuck in the hospital during the holidays.

I’ve spent more than one holiday season in a children’s hospital. It’s not a place you want to be.

I’d planned to rant and curse (and beg) people to get vaccinated. I’d planned to list the stories (if not the names) of at least ten children who have died from Covid this summer because I thought it might change a few minds.

But researching this topic is breaking my heart. The stories keep coming. Every day there’s a child or a new mother or a parent with very young children who dies from a virus they didn’t need to die from.

They didn’t need to die because there is a vaccine that’s safe and effective.

They didn’t need to die because masks, plus the vaccine, plus a little inconvenience, common sense, and selflessness could’ve saved them (and countless others).

I honestly don’t understand what the hell is happening anymore. It’s like we’re living in two different realities. In my reality, terrible things can and do happen. People get sick and die — even children, even your best friend, even your soul mate. In my reality, you do everything you possibly can to keep the people you love safe even if it’s hard. In my reality, the difference between before and after is a heartbeat that thuds to a halt, a breath that rattles its last gasp, a future devoid of a beloved face, voice, person.

But in the other reality, death is someone else’s problem. It’s unfathomable. I mean, it must be un-fucking-fathomable because why else would you invite death into your home or the homes of your friends, family, and community?

Why would you tempt the plague to come knocking at your door? Why would you dare to gamble with something as fragile and finite as your life or your child’s life or anyone’s child’s life?

I don’t understand.

I can’t wrap my brain around this other reality. My daughter starts school in 11 days and I’m fucking terrified, even though my entire family is vaccinated. We’ve done everything right for 18 months, but delta is at our doorstep and unvaccinated people are walking around without masks and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.

We’re in the path of a runaway train that only half of us can see, but the train doesn’t care. It’s going to take us out whether we see it or not.