Education Week published an opinion piece by The ABC Science Collaborative Co-Chairs, Dr. Kanecia Zimmerman and Dr. Danny Benjamin on Thursday. “FDA Approval Should End Vaccination Hesitation” urges all eligible people, especially school staff, to get vaccinated.  Doing so will make schools safer for the children who remain ineligible to receive any COVID-19 vaccine.

“As we wait now for emergency use authorization for children under 12 years of age, the very best thing that we can do to protect children is for every eligible individual to get vaccinated with the newly approved vaccine,” Zimmerman and Benjamin wrote.

The piece commended the 80% of teachers nationwide who are leading by example and have already received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, the remaining amount of unvaccinated school staff adds up to about 1 million people. More school staff members need to get vaccinated to protect themselves and the children they work with.

Zimmerman and Benjamin stressed that COVID-19 is not an insignificant risk to children. Recently, there have been increasing hospitalization rates among younger populations because of the virus. Children infected with COVID-19 can experience severe disease and long term effects,. While death is rare, the disease has so far killed over 400 children nationwide.

Zimmerman and Benjamin write: “A Boeing 747 typically holds about 366 passengers. A plane crash killing that many children and adolescents would be considered a national tragedy, and yet many voices have been dismissing COVID-19 in children as an insignificant risk.”

They concluded: “Adults everywhere need to roll up their sleeves and fight this pandemic together. There is no more time to wait to protect our nation’s most valuable resource—our children.”