by Hannah Bleau
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging parents to get their eligible children vaccinated for the Chinese coronavirus prior to the fall 2021 school year, despite lingering concerns about the possible development of heart inflammation conditions in young people who receive the mRNA vaccines.
âParents: Prevent #COVID19 from spreading at school. Get kids 12+ fully vaccinated before school begins,â the federal health agency said Friday, adding that children who are not fully vaccinated should wear a mask indoors.
âIn areas where COVID-19 is spreading, kids who are not fully vaccinated should #WearAMask indoors, on the school bus, and in crowded outdoor settings,â it added:
Parents: Prevent #COVID19 from spreading at school. Get kids 12+ fully vaccinated before school begins. In areas where COVID-19 is spreading, kids who are not fully vaccinated should #WearAMask indoors, on the school bus, and in crowded outdoor settings. https://t.co/EY4kdEaqkI pic.twitter.com/3y6J5asFNd
— CDC (@CDCgov) July 9, 2021
The CDC released its updated school guidance on Friday, recognizing it as a âpriorityâ for children to safely return to in-person instruction in the fall. However, it also made it clear that children who are unvaccinated should continue to wear masks:
The federal health agency released updated guidance Friday, recognizing in-person learning for children as extremely beneficial and listing their return to the classrooms as a âpriority.â This is âregardless of whether all of the prevention strategies can be implemented at the school.â Nonetheless, it is still advancing the notion that unvaccinated children should continue to wear masks in school. Currently, children under the age of 12 are not cleared to receive a vaccine. As such, the CDC recommends âlayered prevention strategiesâ to âprotectâ the unvaccinated.
 âŠThe update includes a list of bullet points, outlining the agencyâs guidance for children to return to school in the fall. It is now recommending schools to keep a 3-foot distance between students in classrooms, âcombined with indoor mask wearing by people who are not fully vaccinated, to reduce transmission risk.â It also recommends masks to be work indoors by all individuals over the age of 2 who are not âfully vaccinated.â However, the guidance does not specify if the CDC expects schools to identify unvaccinated children and teachers publicly and hold them to those standards.
The CDCâs vaccine push follows the federal agency recognizing a likely link between the development of heart inflammation conditions in young people, primarily young men, after receiving either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. However, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices concluded that the benefits of receiving the vaccine outweigh the risk of developing myocarditis.
The CDC is currently investigating the death of a 13-year-old Michigan boy who died in his sleep two days after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. According to the Detroit Free Press, âThe family was told that preliminary autopsy findings suggest Jacobâs heart was enlarged when he died and there was fluid around his heart.â
Fabio Berlingieri, the father of a 17-year-old, appeared on Fox & Friends this week, speaking about how his son developed a heart condition after receiving the Pfizer vaccine:
According to Berlingieri, his sonâs troponin levels were âoff the charts,â and he remained in the hospital for a couple of days, causing him to miss his prom. The teen âbarely made his graduationâ and was also informed he cannot do âall the things he loves to doâ due to his condition, including playing soccer in the fall.
His father added that the last cardiologist check-in showed his EKG a âlittle off.â
âWhat happened, I guess, is the oxygen doesnât get in those areas. So it has to heal. So he has to be very careful that he doesnât do anything strenuous so his heart rate doesnât increase and [put him in] danger of a heart attack,â Berlingieri said.
âIt doesnât make sense,â Dr. Nicole Saphier said in reaction to Berlingieriâs story, expressing that the FDA should âlook a little bit closer at these vaccines before they continue having universal recommendations.â