As a parent with two kids between 5 and 11 who will soon return to school, I can hardly overstate the frantic helplessness I feel knowing that the country is awash in vaccines that could protect them, and that data about those vaccines’ safety in children exists, yet bureaucratic caution could force us to spend the next few months taking our chances with Covid instead.

I understand that even if my kids get infected, odds are they’ll be OK. But as Beers said: “If you’re a parent whose child is very sick with an illness that could have prevented from safe and effective measures, the statistics probably don’t matter as much to you. What matters is that your child is ill with something we could have prevented.”

The problem is that the F.D.A. won’t be blamed for avoidable Covid cases the same way it would be blamed for unexpected vaccine side effects. All of its institutional incentives therefore point toward excessive wariness. What the F.D.A. does, said Jha, is “mitigate the downside risk of drugs and vaccines. They are almost never asked to consider the downsides of delay.” Most of the time, he said, “that approach works, except if you’re in a global pandemic.”