08/08/2021
On Monday, we will begin the largest public health experiment of this century with our children. As the COVID-19 Delta variant continues to rise across the United States, this highly transmissible virus, along with other respiratory viral infections including RSV, Influenza, and Enterovirus (Hand-Foot-and-Mouth), are primed for a surge as our children begin to gather indoors in larger numbers, for the first time in over a year and a half.
According to CDC data, in the past week 192 children infected with COVID-19 were hospitalized daily—a 45% increase compared to the week prior. And the largest pediatric hospital in the world, Texas Children’s Hospital, is currently out of hospital beds thanks to the combination of RSV and COVID admissions.
Children learn best in person. They deserve to have a safe back to school experience. Thankfully there are simple interventions that can go a long way in reducing viral load exposure and the likelihood of infection from all of these illnesses. A layered approach to infection control that includes masking can reduce the amount of infected droplets a child will come in contact with and limit the spread of these contagious diseases.
We wear a mask indoors at all times in order to protect our own health and the health of others. We know parents are counting on us to be responsible and vigilant with our health in order to keep our clinic doors open.
We now ask the same of you: please help us keep our children safe. For all those eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, we want you to get immunized. For those who are not immunized, including children age 2-12, we implore you to do the socially responsible thing and wear a mask indoors to minimize your own respiratory droplet spread.
Our children are absolutely capable of doing new things when they are supported by the adults they love. We have the opportunity to model for our children what it looks like to place aside personal preference for the greater good of our community. Now is the time to empower our children to be allies in protecting the health of their friends, teachers, and neighbors.
So this weekend, please consider speaking to your children about the importance of each of us doing what we can to collectively keep our community healthy and safe. Please help your children to wear a mask indoors, and remind them that they are choosing to be the most important of all superheroes when they mask up to protect those around them: they are choosing to be helpers. And that is never the wrong choice.
