To fully vaccinate children against Covid-19 in time for school, many parents must act now

To fully vaccinate children against Covid-19 in time for school, many parents must act now

 

While it's a bit of a bummer to think about going back to school before it's even the Fourth of July, in many parts of the country, if you want your child to be immunized against Covid-19 by the time classes start, you need to act fast.    Many large school systems -- including Atlanta, Fort Myers, Florida, Flagstaff, Arizona, and the entire state of Hawaii -- start school in the first two weeks of August.    It takes five weeks to be fully vaccinated with Pfizer's vaccine, the only one authorized for adolescents ages 12 to 17. That means, for example, Atlanta students need to get their first shot by July 1 to be fully immunized by the first day of school on August 5.    "Get them vaccinated. Vaccine provides, without a doubt, the best protection against Covid, and we want our schools to be safe and we want our children to go back to school," said Dr. William Schaffner, a longtime vaccine adviser to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We have two grandchildren in that age group, and they have been vaccinated, so do not only as I say, but do as my family has done."