and the best way to protect them is to protect the rest of the family. we haven t vaccinated nearly enough kids between 5 and 11 or 12 and 17. we need to do much better than that. if you want to protect little children, you need to vaccinate older children, all the parents need to be vaccinated. those kids need to have a mask when they go out. and if they re in school, schools should be using rapid tests widely to, you know, identify kids who are infected, have them stay home, keep the rest of the kids in school. we have a bunch of strategies that we know work. hopefully within the next few months we ll be able to vaccinate kids under 5. we have to wait several weeks unless that data is available from pfizer. that s going to come, but until then we need to protect them with the mitigation strategies that we know are proven and work. dr. jonathan reiner, thank you so much. thank you, paula.
these are all the factors that are a part of the problem, and we re trying to do the best that we can. and thank god that we were schools were able to receive the american rescue plan dollars that have allowed them to use the dollars to go out and hire additional staff or in some cases, to pay staff more to keep them in school. so these are all the things that they re doing, but for sure, we want the kids in school. they need to be in school. but we want them to be safe. doctor, one more question for you. the fda is expected to authorize the pfizer booster for kids 12 to 15. will this help, or is it too late by the time it s authorized the kids get the booster, are we going to be past the biggest part of this problem? so omicron is moving differently across the country. so certainly for those kids who are going to be eligible for the booster later this week, it is not too late. i recommend to parents of that 12 to 15-year-old age group when
days, we want uninterrupted academic, art, activities, we want people on research, recess, teachers teaching and minimise quarantine and keep the kids in school. minimise quarantine and keep the kids in school. what do the teachers and the kids in school. what do the teachers and children - the kids in school. what do the teachers and children you - the kids in school. what do the teachers and children you have| teachers and children you have spoken to have to say about this? a , ., this? our teachers are thrilled. this? our teachers are thrilled, as this? our teachers are thrilled, as you - this? our teachers are thrilled, as you know, | this? our teachers are - thrilled, as you know, because we have been able to vaccinate youth i2 and older, high schools and middle schools have been able to mitigate the spread of covid i9 at better rates in elementary schools and so as we talk to kindergarten through fifth grade teachers across the valley here, across our state, they are th
i mean, i m the parent of four adult kids. but when the kids were little my wife anne and i, you know, always wanted to see the kids in school. but the problem is everybody stamped their feet and demanded in-person classes but nobody wanted to roll-up their sleeves and do the hard work and put the policies in place in southern states to make it happen. it meant mandating masks. it meant mandating vaccines for everybody 12 and up. and nobody wanted to step forward and do the hard work. and now i worry when schools open with this raging epidemic, i mean this is a screaming high level of transmission among the highest we ve ever seen. and you open up schools without masks, without vaccines and tell me what s going to go well here. and so we re already seeing schools opening up and then a week later so many kids are becoming positive they re shutting it down. and i think there s a good possibility we re going to see a lot of that happening in the south in the next few weeks when schools op
don. remember, last fall, we started to see this surge up in the mountain west states and in the in the upper midwest. so, we re going to likely see that, again, in the mountain-west states where vaccination rates are, also, low. but for now, it s a matter of getting through the next-few weeks, as schools open. you know, everybody stamped their feet and said we have to do in-person classes. and i get that. i mean, i m the parent of four-adult kids. but when the kids were little, my wife anne and i were, you know, always wanted to see the kids in school. but but the problem is everybody stamped their feet and demanded in-person classes but nobody wanted to roll up their sleeves, and do the hard work and put the policies in place in southern states to make it happen. it meant mandating masks. it meant mandating vaccines for everybody 12 and up. and nobody wanted to step forward and and do the hard work. and now, i worry, once schools open with this raging epidemic, i mean, this is