The kids are not alright as the virus rages – Covid will continue to threaten us all unless we vaccinate our children
FINALLY, after four months of hemming and hawing, the National Immunisation Advisory Council got the finger out and gave the nod to jab 12 to 15-year-olds.
Not before time. The US, Israel, Denmark, France and Germany have been inoculating that age group for more than four weeks now.
It’s been three months since the European Medicines Agency authorised the use of Pfizer and latterly Moderna for teenagers.
After careful consideration they decided that vaccinating 12 to 15-year-olds was not only safe but necessary if Europe wanted to successfully end the pandemic threat.
Unless we inoculate our children — and not just the 270,000 12 to 15-year-olds — Covid will continue to threaten us all because it will have a viable population, one million strong, in which to circulate freely, and with potentially devastating consequences for all of us.
Not only does Covid and the more transmissible Delta variant make kids sick, but, left to run amok in our younger population, it can easily mutate and become more deadly.
The unvaccinated are the petri dish where future variants will flourish.
Across the pond, the British government has made the decision not to jab kids aged under 12, unless they have serious underlying health issues.
Essentially, Boris Johnson’s government hopes to achieve herd immunity among its population by allowing Covid a free run among the young and the unvaccinated.
Their reasoning is simplistic: Covid doesn’t affect young people to the same degree as older folk.
True, young people may not die from Covid to the same degree, but statistics worldwide show that ten per cent of kids who become infected end up suffering from long Covid. And that’s no joke.
Breathlessness, heart problems, constant exhaustion, long-term lung issues, brain fog and depression are among the symptoms of long Covid.
No child should ever have to suffer that. In America, more than three million 12 to 15-year-olds have been jabbed so far. There have been few reports of serious issues cropping up.
Not only that, studies in several countries, most notably Israel, show that the Pfizer and Moderna jabs are 100 per cent effective at preventing serious illness and death in 12 to 15-year-olds. Studies among younger age groups are ongoing.
Put it this way, if you vaccinate your child, you protect them from a devastating virus that could make them very sick.
The HSE’s Colm Henry revealed earlier this week just how effective being fully vaccinated is. Of 124 patients in ICU here, just ONE had been fully vaccinated + 14 days (the time it takes for the vaccine to provide durable protection against Covid).
Keeping your kid safe from the threat of serious illness should be the only consideration if you have one who is in line to receive a vaccine. Especially since the schools will reopen as planned at the end of August.
The safety of our children is paramount. A nation has a duty to safeguard the health of all citizens.
Until NIAC made the decision to allow 12 to 15-year-olds receive the jab, our young were excluded from the conversation — as if their health and well-being was of lesser importance to those of adults and the medically vulnerable.
All of us deserve the arm of the State around our shoulder when peril is in the air. I’m absolutely sure that by mid-autumn — and Pfizer and Moderna are already testing the efficacy of their vaccines in children aged four to 11 in America — the vaccine rollout here will expand to include kids of primary school age. It has to if this pandemic is to be tamed and eventually defeated.
Covid has proved itself remarkably resilient at surviving, even in places where vaccination rates are high, like here. The virus will find bodies to infect, regardless of their age. Only vaccines thwart it.
Education Minister Norma Foley has repeatedly said she is determined schools will fully reopen at the end of August.
But that decision is entirely dependent on the Covid situation.
There is little doubt that the Delta variant is rampaging through our younger people. Wouldn’t it be wiser to delay the reopening of secondary schools, at least until those aged 12 to 17 are fully protected — a process that, if it begins next week, will take four weeks to complete?
Pushing back the reopening date for secondary to the 15th or even the 21st of September would give the HSE time to inoculate as many older kids as it can. A delay would help thwart Delta’s ability to rampage through unprotected classrooms.
Foley would be wise to keep an open mind. After all, you’ll never do anything in this world without courage — the greatest quality of the soul next to honour.
AN INSIDE SCOOP AS THE PUBS OPEN UP
INDOOR boozing resumed on Monday and it could not have come at a more opportune time.
The pubs’ shutters came up just as the heatwave retreated.
The scorching torpor of Sunday gave way to cooler climes on Monday.
Then the rain arrived. ‘Woohoo,’ whooped our publicans up and down the country.
Those armed with their Covid-19 certificate — proving full vaccination — were no doubt like the cats that got the cream as they nursed their first pint indoors after almost a year.
All week, pubs across Ireland were reportedly doing a roaring trade.
And why not? Only the bitterest souls would begrudge them making a few bob after being on their knees, hemmed in by the most punitive restrictions in the pandemic-hit world.
I wasn’t there to imbibe in the flesh on Monday. The joys of work intervened. However, I was there in spirit.
And a buddy of mine sent me the above photo from his nesting spot indoors to really rub my nose in it.
However, good things come to those who wait — and as you read this column I shall be staring at the cold condensation snaking down my glass as my first pint of the week rests up within delectable reach.
ROW PAIR JOIN OAR GOLDEN GREATS
THE Irish rowing pair of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy pulled like dogs to become Olympic champions in Tokyo.
The Skibbereen duo were pushed all the way in their lightweight double sculls final — but they persevered against the monumental German pair who led for much of the race.
The lads didn’t panic, despite falling behind to both the Germans and the eventual bronze medal winners the Italians in the middle third of the race.
They trusted their explosive finish — they’re not World Champions for nothing — to see them over the line and in so doing they earned a place in the seven-strong pantheon of Olympic champions from Ireland.
Hammer thrower Pat O’Callaghan won our first Olympic Gold in Amsterdam in 1928. He repeated the feat four years later in Los Angeles. Bob Tisdall claimed gold for Ireland in the 400m hurdles that Olympics too. And 1,500m runner Ronnie Delaney did it in Melbourne in 1956.
Boxer Michael Carruth earned gold in 1992, while swimmer Michelle Smith’s three golds in Atlanta still stand.
Our last gold before yesterday was boxer Katie Taylor’s in London.
Well done lads in joining the Irish immortals.
ROOING ANOTHER DAY... AND NIGHT
POOR old Wayne Rooney. Can’t catch a break, that lad. In 2002 he was caught having sex in a Liverpool brothel with three prostitutes, including a 48-year-old granny known as ‘Auld Slapper’ who wore a rubber catsuit.
In 2010, news emerged of a fling with £1,000-a-night call girl Jennifer Thompson, which happened while wife Coleen was pregnant with their first child Kai a year earlier.
Within weeks it came out that Roo had a threesome with Thompson and another sex worker Helen Wood (aptly named).
“Why the hell did I do that?” he reportedly asked Helen and Jenny while sitting on the hotel bed in a bath robe. Eh, why indeed?
Then, in September 2017, he was pulled over for alleged drink-driving while in party girl Laura Simpson’s VW Beetle. She told newspapers nothing had happened between them. Ahem.
Now he’s been rumbled again, with three girls in a hotel at six in the morning.
If truth be told, I feel sorry for Coleen too.
COWAN'S SAMBO TOASTING UNFAIR
WHAT’S wrong with eating a club sambo that costs €21? If you can afford it, you’ve every right to tuck in.
Rory Cowan got it in the neck this week for posting a picture of himself enjoying his lunch in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel.
He beamed beside a sandwich square, and why wouldn’t he after the worst year ever?
He probably expected kick-back, but some of the vitriol that followed was disgraceful. Elements even referenced the Holocaust.
Those with a bee in their bonnet about Rory’s delicious treat are the same who are perpetually outraged by the merest ripple.
Their lives are empty.
The playground of the lonely, the angry, the clinically depressed and the envious is social media. It’s mainly Twitter and Facebook, both now cesspits filled with those who only find comfort in denying comfort to others.
Abandon your dark rooms, folks, before it’s too late and your lives slither away into the nothingness of forever.
Most read in Irish News
IT’S not something I am remotely interested in. However, Love Island spin-off Casa Amor rolled out an Irish contestant in a skimpy green bikini (what else?) this week and social media erupted in a frenzy.
Read more on the Irish Sun
Why? Well, the hit TV show that claims to be about finding love (it’s more about contestants promoting their marketing ability) spat forth an Irish contender that is the image of RTE star Claire Byrne.
I doubt it’ll be up for discussion on her show though.