Letter: Government needs to act on COVID vaccine for kids

Editor:

Sen. Bob Casey visited Reading to present his Five Freedoms for America’s Children plan (“Investing in children,” Reading Eagle, Sept. 14). I was saddened that the coverage of the event had no mention at all of COVID-19 vaccine for children of his constituents under 12.

I am a very sad and frustrated grandparent of three young children who lives in fear of them contracting COVID from those who have exercised their right to not receive the vaccine.

Many parents have been trying to get their kids in clinical trials to protect them. The government could help this along just as it did when it made provisions for adults. Children deserve the same opportunity to stay safe.

What are we waiting for? What kind of people are we to leave our young children, our future, sitting ducks for serious illness, or worse?

Children are being denied hugs from their grandparents, sleepovers, making memories, relating to extended families, forced to wear masks all day in school, depriving themselves of some good oxygen to the brain, adding up absences due to being denied entrance to schools because their nose is running, constant interrupted learning … I could go on.

What reasons does the government have for not moving this along? Do we need more serious pediatric hospitalizations and more deaths, or is it all simply politics?

Let’s put our parties and differences aside, and instead of acting like children, let’s think about our children. Grandparents everywhere want their grandchildren back in their lives.

Carol Gross
Cumru Township

Source: Berkshire mont