What do you do when the kids are still unvaccinated?

Consider that Covid-19 has killed fewer than 450 Americans under the age of 18, which is less than a flu season often does. The flu can be deadlier for children than Covid has been even though most children receive a flu vaccine. While some of the new coronavirus variants may be more severe, the difference is not big enough to change any of the fundamental comparisons. “It’s very unusual for kids to get very sick,” Dr. Rebecca Wurtz of the University of Minnesota said. The low toll of Covid-19 on children is not just because millions of them have largely stayed at home over the past year and avoided getting the virus. Among those children who have contracted Covid-19, the death rate still looks similar to the death rate from the flu... “For people under the age of 18, Covid is really not that big of a risk,” said Stephen Kissler, a researcher at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “I do think of it as on par with the risk from flu.” It’s also helpful to put Covid-19 in the context of other risks that children face. About twice as many children drown in a typical year than have died from Covid-19 over the past year. About five times as many die in vehicle accidents. If protecting children from small but real risks of serious harm were society’s top goal, keeping children away from pools and cars would probably have a bigger effect than isolating them in coming months.