Pandemic can't end without the vaccination of kids

THE United States' coronavirus vaccine roll-out has finally hit its stride, with well over two million doses administered daily. Soon, vaccines will be available to all adults who want them.

Children are the next vaccination frontier. When it comes time to vaccinate them, the same urgency and large-scale coordination efforts driving adult vaccination must continue if we want to sustainably drive down Covid-19 cases and ultimately end the pandemic.

Currently, vaccine demand among adults exceeds the supply. But there is reason to worry that once children are eligible, vaccination rates for them will initially be far lower and rise more slowly than those seen among adults. Children are much less likely than adults to be hospitalised with Covid-19, and deaths from the disease among kids are rare. Parents may wonder, if Covid-19 is relatively harmless for my children, what is the hurry?