While many parents can breathe a sigh of relief with their own vaccines, it can be difficult to feel free as long as their children are not vaccinated. They are children who need to play in the yard, interact with classmates and friends and hang out without parents worrying all the time.
How should vaccinated parents make decisions about play dates, restaurants, and vacations while their children are not vaccinated? CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and visiting professor of health policy and management at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, weighs.
CNN: That’s a long way off. Will children be able to return to school to receive face-to-face instruction in the fall?
It will be important for all teachers, school staff and parents to be vaccinated in the fall. This helps to further reduce community transmission and protects those who cannot yet be vaccinated, especially children.
CNN: Meanwhile, many parents are getting vaccinated. What is your advice? Can grandparents visit if children are not vaccinated?
Wen: Parental vaccination is really important. It reduces their own chances of getting sick and also reduces the likelihood of transmitting coronavirus to people around them, including their children. It also makes the visits of other family members safer. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that fully vaccinated people can visit another family in which not everyone is vaccinated, as long as those who are not yet vaccinated are not at high risk for serious illness. Covid-19. This means that it is good for grandparents to visit their children and grandchildren and stay with them, dine with them inside, hug them and not put on masks.
CNN: What about visiting another family where parents are vaccinated but children are not?
Wen: This is where we enter a complicated territory. It is one thing for vaccinated grandparents to visit a family with some unvaccinated members, but it is another for two families to visit each other, each with unvaccinated people.
What we do know is that adults are more likely to transmit coronavirus than young children. It should also be noted that adolescents appear to transmit coronaviruses at the same rate as adults. If people who are not vaccinated meet, there is a risk that they will acquire and transmit Covid-19.
For now, although the United States has a high basal level of circulating coronavirus, it is best for families with unvaccinated individuals to be seen only outdoors, with members of different families 6 feet apart. If children play together and cannot always respect the 6 feet distanced, they should wear masks.
Try to be outdoors at all times. If people have to be inside, they have to wear masks with each other. And be very careful if your child has underlying medical conditions. Again, wearing masks for them and everyone around them is really crucial.
CNN: Are there any circumstances in which families with children can be reunited safely? What if three families want to rent a house together?
Wen: If there are three families, all with unvaccinated children, who want to get together for an extended period of time and want to be in a shared space like a home, I would suggest they put them in quarantine and try. Specifically, I advise that unvaccinated members of each family reduce the risk for seven days and then take the test, or reduce the risk for 14 days before the meeting, if the tests are not readily available.
This means that there are no other meetings, especially indoors, during this period. My guidance here is that those who are vaccinated probably do not need to be tested, as their likelihood of contracting and transmitting coronavirus is greatly reduced. But with great caution, before this inner encounter, I would still encourage vaccinated people to reduce their risk during this period.
CNN: What about going to restaurants? Should parents go alone or is it okay to bring their children?
Wen: I think it’s important to clarify that there is virtually nothing that is 100% safe. It all comes down to understanding the relative risk and then trying to assess the risk and manage it for each family.
Takeaway meals will still be the safest, followed by an al fresco meal. The indoor dining room still has some risk. The risk for vaccinated parents is much lower than before they were completely vaccinated. that’s all right for people to weigh their risks and decide that after vaccination they want to enjoy some of their pre-pandemic activities. Parents who want to go to restaurants from time to time should do so and try to be outdoors. If you want to eat indoors, choose places that have strict safety protocols, such as spacing between tables and good ventilation.
It is an individual family decision on whether to bring unvaccinated children to these circumstances. The risk is not zero, but probably quite low, in outdoor restaurants. Inside, this risk will be higher. It would be particularly prudent if a child is immunosuppressed or has additional risk factors for severe covid-19.
CNN: What about attending birthday parties? Does it matter if all parents in these settings have been vaccinated?
Wen: I would definitely feel better with a birthday party where I know all the parents of the children attending have been vaccinated, because the chance of someone having an asymptomatic Covid-19 carrier greatly decreases. However, given the number of unvaccinated children out there, I would not want to meet at home. I would still make sure the meeting takes place outdoors and that there is a minimum distance of 6 feet between families. Everyone should wear masks. The same goes for game dates, family reunions, and other reunions.
CNN: Many parents want to travel with their children during the summer. Is it safe?
Wen: This is another situation where we need to talk about relative risk. A road trip by car is low risk. Air travel also has a pretty low risk, as long as everyone is masked. My main concern for travel is not so much the risk during traffic, but what people do at their destination. If all meals are to be in restaurants, this substantially increases the risk. On the other hand, if you plan to cook or take food away, the risk is much lower. The same goes for the activities that are done while traveling. Going to amusement parks and crowded movie theaters poses a much greater risk than hiking and camping vacations. A large family reunion or a wedding will have a greater risk than a small reunion with only grandparents.
At this point in the pandemic, we need to move on to the concept of weighting risk and trying to minimize it. Having vaccinated parents is an important step in reducing the risk, even if the children are not yet vaccinated, but measures must still be taken to protect the children – and everyone around us – from Covid-19.