Should I Be Worried About the Kids Going Back to School?

My kids are going back to school this week (one week ahead of most Canadian schools), and I don’t know how to feel about it! Today is the first time all three of them have attended in-person school on the same day since March of 2020. We live in the DC-area while my husband works as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star and our schools were completely virtual until mid-April when the kids started attending every other week. But even then they didn’t all go on the same week! So I have been eagerly counting the days until the full return of schools. But shouldn’t I be worried about COVID?

No, because vaccination rates are high here…

By June, vaccine rates in the county I live in climbed to be among the highest in the county (85% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated!) and case numbers fell to less than one case per 100,000. Hallelujah! We were in the clear! “I come to you from the future,” I told my friends in Canada where vaccinations were just a few weeks behind, “and it’s amazing.” I signed the kids up for camp. I planned road trips. I even rejoined my gym! Why would I be worried about my kids going back to school?

Yes, because cases are climbing…

But then the Delta variant began its northbound crawl. First it was surging in states where vaccination rates were low. That was already concerning for those regions, no doubt, but it didn’t pose an immediate threat to my own family. Then that Delta surge started radiating outward and upward, and I watched helplessly as the COVID case counts ticked up higher and higher in my own highly vaccinated area. We now have twice as many cases as we did at this time last year when nobody was vaccinated! And I worry what the fall and winter will bring for Canada and the northeastern part of the United States.

No, because vaccines still protect against severe illness…

But maybe case rates aren’t as important now. I keep reading how the vaccines continue to protect against serious cases of COVID. Delta might be able to infect our noses and make us congested but our immune systems mostly still kick in before it settles in our chest and makes us more seriously ill. If we happen to get a head cold that is technically COVID, then that’s not so bad, is it? Colds are a fact of life with the kids going back to school every year.

Yes, because my nine-year-old isn’t vaccinated yet…

But I still have one child under 12 who can’t yet get vaccinated. So she is still at a higher risk of both contracting the virus and spreading it to classmates. What’s more, I keep reading about children’s hospitals in parts of the South that are running out of space. We seem to be seeing much more spread among children during this phase.

No, because kids still don’t usually get very sick…

Except I also read that those hospitals are also filling up because there’s another respiratory virus circulating, not just COVID. I’m reassured that the rates of severe illness from COVID in kids are as low as they were earlier in the pandemic. And even the kids who do get hospitalized usually have good outcomes.

Yes, because the vaccines are waning…

While the overwhelming majority of hospitalizations are comprised of unvaccinated people, some fully vaccinated people are also getting very a sick. And a few are dying. Some studies suggest that the vaccines lose efficacy over time and that booster shots will be necessary. We might not be as protected against a Delta wave as we think we are.

No, because they’re not really waning.

Other studies show long lasting secondary immune protection that will continue to protect against COVID for years to come. Sure, we might get infected with SARS-COV-2 but most of us won’t develop severe COVID illness, they say.

But there could be another variant…

But there isn’t yet…

Are we really still fumbling around in the dark?! It certainly feels like that some days. But the truth is that right now I’m not worried. Maybe I should be worried. But after so many months of constant vigilance, I’ve just run out of the capacity to worry.

COVID isn’t going anywhere. We’re all going to get it at some point or other. We’ll wear masks and socialize outside as much as possible. We’ll take the vaccines that are offered. We’ll take the boosters when they come. But we must continue.

Another year of virtual learning would have horrible for my children, and I can already see their spirits bouncing back after going back to school for just one day. So this is where we are as a family and as a society. Might as well chin up and stop worrying—for now.

Of course, the one thing I have learned through all of this is that nothing stays the same. And that all-consuming worry can be turned on as with the flick of a switch. We are not out of the woods yet.

But until then, for right this very moment, happy back-to-school to you all. Whether your kids are going back to school or back to your kitchen or living room or dining room or, or, or…