| Michael Joseph Smith, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Duke University, worries that laissez-faire attitudes about vaccinating children could prolong the pandemic and even cost lives. The more transmissible delta variant has led to an increase in cases among children, and anecdotally it appears to be making them sicker—and more quickly—than previous strains. With the school season fast approaching, only 43% of those 12 to 17 have received their first dose. That's led the White House to call upon schools, community organizers, and even the Gen Z pop star Olivia Rodrigo to double down on pitching the vaccine's benefits before the school year starts. Those 12 to 17 account for 7.5% of the U.S. population, and with younger kids in the picture, it's more than a quarter. Beyond vaccinating kids to protect them against the troublesome consequences of the virus—such as hospitalization, long Covid or an inflammatory condition known as MIS-C—the pediatric immunization campaign is critical to reaching the goal of herd immunity, estimated at protection for at least 70% of the population. (That number could be higher as variants continue to emerge.)  Pop star Olivia Rodrigo at a White House news briefing on vaccinations. Photographer: Oliver Contreras/Bloomberg As an investigator at one of the sites testing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in kids, Smith is part of the effort to expand the shot to children under 12. Initial data are expected as early as September, and U.S. health officials expect kids of all ages to be eligible to get vaccinated within the first quarter of 2022. Efforts to encourage immunization will be even trickier when it comes to boosting coverage among the youngest. As a result, educators will have a debate on their hands: whether to implement mandates requiring Covid vaccinations, as they routinely do for measles, polio, and other diseases, or—because of politics—to let parents decide. Many are likely to chose the former when the shot is finally granted a full approval instead of an emergency-use authorization. All 50 states require children to be immunized against chickenpox, measles, polio, and whooping cough to attend school. Those mandates persist even though they've been so successful that the risk of contracting some of the illnesses they cover is now almost nonexistent: The last known U.S. case of polio, for example, dates to 1979. As the school year nears, public support for a mandate is growing. But a stark partisan gap remains, with Democrats' support for a mandate doubling that of Republicans, and those vehemently opposed are rallying. Until mandates are put in place, U.S. middle and high schools will have to rely on local officials, health providers and grassroots organizations to win over parents, one shot at a time.—Riley Ray Griffin | 
⇉〖OpenLoad〗 2020 Superintelligence PelÃcula Completa En LÃnea released 2020. story: La vida de Carol Peters se trastorna cuando es selecci...
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