According to Dr. Rick Barr, the chief clinical officer at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, parents of hospitalized children are “shocked” because the “messaging out there has been that kids don’t really get sick with Covid, and we didn’t see serious illnesses, except for rare instances, with the previous variant”. Having seen what COVID-19 has done to their child, parents of hospitalized children are now “encouraging other parents to get their kids vaccinated,” he said.

Fortunately, the vaccine seems to be working very well. According to Dr. Marcos Mestre from Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, “We have not yet admitted a child 12 and over who’s been vaccinated and required hospitalization”. Most countries with abundant supply are vaccinating adolescents. Even one of the last holdouts, the UK, recently decided to vaccinate 16 and 17-year olds. Predictably there are reports of parents regretting their decision to not vaccinate their child after they become seriously ill with COVID-19. I expect to see many more such stories in the future, and each one will be a preventable tragedy.

Though we will never get an exact tally, we deserve more reliable information about how many children have died of COVID-19 and the characteristics of these children. The CDC’s failure to provide this information has been a gift to those who exploit this inexactitude to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about vaccines, children, and COVID-19.