Italy has reached 30 million vaccinated with at least a first dose. Many families are organizing summer holidays but there is a whole category, children and teenagers under 16, which cannot be vaccinated because the various products have not yet been authorized for this age group. For older children, from 12 to 15 years of age, the closest immunization: the preparation Pfizer It has already been authorized in the United States and EMA, the European Medicines Agency, expects the go-ahead by June. But the little ones will still have to wait. Pfizer announced that vaccines for i children aged 2 and over they could arrive in the United States as early as September and it is likely that in Europe we can start with vaccinations for children between Christmas and the beginning of 2022.
S alla socialit
But how should families with unvaccinated children be regulated now while adults are starting to socialize and have more freedom thanks to the vaccine? The New York Times promoted a survey involving 828 experts including pediatricians, virologists, epidemiologists. Many, albeit with some divergence, agree that children will have to continue to follow a series of precautions such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing in certain circumstances (in the US, where the vaccination campaign later on, those who have received the double dose no longer obliged to wear a mask and maintain social distancing). Some less risky activities, especially outdoors, are encouraged to help the little ones a counteract the negative effects of the pandemic had on mental health: going for a bike ride with friends a far cry from meeting them on zoom.
At the restaurant
We will continue to go to the restaurant with our children trying to keep the distance with the other tables by moving inside the room with masks, as we have always done. With an increasingly important share of vaccinated adults – warns the immunologist Antonella Viola, Scientific Director of the Pediatric Research Institute of Padua – the virus will circulate less and less and our children will consequently be more protected.
You meet him indoors
How should a family with vaccinated parents and unvaccinated children behave when it comes to meeting friends? At home, and in any case in private environments, masks and spacing are difficult to put into practice, even more so for the little ones. The advice to always interact with a selected number of households, once again creating a bubble. In these contexts, with immunized adults, the risks are controlled, says Antonella Viola, who is also a professor of Pathology in Padua. It is better to accept a minimum risk of contagion, which generally has slight consequences for younger people, rather than continuing to expose children to isolation. We still can’t imagine big parties with so many children playing side by side as we used to just a couple of years ago, but returning home to invite a close circle of friends with immunized parents is now acceptable.
At the playground
Outdoors, the risks of contagion are limited, which is why even unvaccinated children, in a situation of low virus circulation, can play or ride a bicycle without wearing a mask. TOattention to gatherings – Antonella Viola warns – if the children are all huddled close together or the teenagers perched on the benches chatting should still make an effort to wear masks.
Travel by plane
There is no reason not to travel with children by plane, where the air changes are high, or by train, where you sit in a checkerboard pattern, as long as all passengers wear a mask, as required by regulations. You can consider choosing short trips and consider using the double mask or of the Ffp2 for children waiting for the vaccine.
Holidays alone
In summer the campuses will resume even with overnight stays: the first independent holidays for older children. These are complex contexts, where coexistence with unrelated peers can represent a risk. Risk that can be limited – suggests the immunologist Viola – by having all participants do a buffer 48 hours before departure as a basic screening. The presence of vaccinated adult workers. I do not recommend dormitories: during real sleep you do not speak, and therefore little aerosol is emitted, but the presence of many people, even if spaced, favors contagion in the presence of an infected person, since you stay in the room for one night whole. Better to opt for rooms that can accommodate a maximum of two to three people.
May 23, 2021 (change May 23, 2021 | 12:08 pm)
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