I keep checking the news sites hoping to see the 12-15yo Pfizer announcement. Would love to get my DD14 vaccinated as soon as possible so everyone feels more comfortable with a possible trip this summer.
Fingers crossed for us all!
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Your post got me to look at the rules across the county. Our experience here is if the parents are undocumented the whole family (regardless of child status) does not qualify for insurance. They also do not for food assistance or other support. I see that might not be true everywhere but I am sure my ultra liberal state is not the only place it is. There are rare exceptions for insurance, and medical treatment will be provided but there they do not have an insurance card.
The issues with IDs is completely different and complicated but that too will vary widely by state/region.
In many cities/towns the schools are the only support for these families. At least where I work we now recognize the issue and will be very creative in the ways we address it.
I hope for all of us, and our dreams of getting covid at least to a point we can all live with it, other agencies are also addressing these issues.
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I guess maybe itās the nuances of how one thinks about herd immunity. If people are thinking that it means Covid is somehow eradicated when enough people are vaccinated, thatās highly unlikely and not really what the term is intended to mean.
This is how the CDC defines it:
Community immunity: A situation in which a sufficient proportion of a population is immune to an infectious disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness) to make its spread from person to person unlikely. Even individuals not vaccinated (such as newborns and those with chronic illnesses) are offered some protection because the disease has little opportunity to spread within the community. Also known as herd immunity.
In that sense, I think we do need to aim for herd immunity, where the spread of Covid is low enough that those that cannot be immunized can still function in society with a normalized amount of risk. A society where Covid continues to run rampant with the expectation that everyone unvaccinated will eventually get it is setting the bar way too low, IMO, and basically puts those unable to be vaccinated in the line of fire.
I actually think they mischaracterized Dr. Fauciās statement a bit in the article. Hereās what it said in the article:
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Biden administrationās top adviser on Covid-19, acknowledged the shift in expertsā thinking. āPeople were getting confused and thinking youāre never going to get the infections down until you reach this mystical level of herd immunity, whatever that number is,ā he said. āThatās why we stopped using herd immunity in the classic sense,ā he added. āIām saying: Forget that for a second. You vaccinate enough people, the infections are going to go down.ā
Iām not sure that it was really a shift in the expertsā thinking, but more that they realized the general public was misconstruing the communication. They are trying to nix the belief that things wouldnāt get better at all until we get to a magical number, and then once we hit that everything would instantly go back to normal.
As far as what an actual end game looks like, this was how it was characterized in detail back in the 4/7 WH briefing (edited heavily for brevity, link to complete dialague provided):
Q Yesterday, the President said weāre not at the finish line yet, but can you kind of clarify or qualify what does the finish line look like? What should people be looking for to know that we are approaching that? Since we know weāre not at it now, what does that look like?
A: ACTING ADMINISTRATOR SLAVITT: You know, as for a quote, unquote āfinish line,ā you know, Iām not sure that thatās necessarily the correct metaphor for what weāre going to experience. I think Dr. Walensky has been leading commentary through gradual steps along the dial that we can do as a country to get back to our old lives. And that began weeks ago with conversations around what I kind of refer to as āthe hugging guidanceā between grandparents and grandchildren who are not high risk, and is extended into travel and other types of things.
DR. WALENSKY: Yeah, you know, I think youāre right on, Andy. You know, we are working to vaccinate more and more people. As we do so, weāre seeing really encouraging trends that the vaccination is working. Weāre seeing demographics ā age demographics ā change that. You know, hospitalizations are now not happening as often in older populations, and theyāre happening now more often in younger populations.
That said, weāre still seeing older people hospitalized, and itās the ones that have not yet been vaccinated. Weāre still hearing stories of, āYou know, I got my vaccine yesterday, and today I have COVID.ā
And so what we really want to do is just scale up that vaccination more and more and more so that we can be in a place where we have more vaccinations out there, and really less disease circulating.
DR. FAUCI: Yeah, I mean, thereās not going to be an absolute number. But I think what weāre going to see, is that, as we get more and more people vaccinated, youāre going to see a concomitant diminution in the number of cases that we see every day and, with that, you know, the cascading domino effect of less hospitalizations and less deaths.
I donāt think itās going to be a precise number. I donāt know what that number is. I canāt say itās going to be āthisā percent. But weāll know it when we see it. Itāll be obvious as the numbers come down rather dramatically.
And when they do, weāre going to wind up getting really, stepwise, much, much more towards what we consider approaching a degree of normality, which everyone really quite dramatically notices it.
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I personally work with families here in PA that are undocumented, but their children, who are citizens, have state insurance, WIC, and all the benefits that come with being an American citizen. I work for Early Intervention, so we know the health insurance status of each of the children we are working with, as that is part of the funding for our program. These children also have a PCP, which their parents typically do not.
Iām not trying to start an argument, but I know that at least here in our local community, there are agencies reaching out and there can be creative ways to be able to offer the vaccine to even those who are difficult to reach. Itās not easy, but all you can do is try.
Edited to add: I looked it up as well and yes, children of undocumented immigrants (if they are American citizens) can get state insurance, food stamps, etc. in any state. But a lot of undocumented immigrants donāt know this and havenāt applied for their American children.
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That is why I said the above.
There are many reasons why the rules are in my state and others are the way they are but generally it is a response to funding from different sources.
I did add to my post. And Iāll attach the information here. The people you work with may not be aware they can apply for those things for the American children.
That chart says undocumented can access emergency medical and cannot purchase medical ?
It says American citizens with parents who are undocumented are eligible for Medicaid and CHIP. You had said the children could not get insurance (and other benefits) regardless of whether they were a citizen or not if their family was undocumented.
Undocumented immigrants themselves cannot receive benefits, which I said in an earlier post. But, if their American children, who have insurance, eventually get the vaccine, the parents would have to bring them in and it would be prudent to vaccinate them as well.
Again, the children of an undocumented citizen that are born in the US are American citizens and can receive those benefits. The parents cannot, as they are undocumented.
I think Iām going to move on. It looks as if Iām not explaining this well.
Now that rapid testing is available without an Rx or a healthcare provider, what are your thoughts on airlines, theme parks, sporting events, concerts, theaters, etc requiring them for entry? NAVICA | Abbott Point of Care
Could be an option instead of a vaccine passport and much more accurate than screening for a fever.
I understand what you are saying and I am happy that your undocumented families feel safe that they could apply for benefits on behalf of their children! I guess I get distracted by how it works here.
I really wonder if it has to do with the hospital and local healthcare system possibly encouraging and helping the family to apply, as these kids seem to have these benefits from birth. Iām sure some are missed though.
I live in a strange area. It is conservative here, but there are a lot of local agencies and healthcare providers that provide a lot of resources to the community.
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I wish we had that here!
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I was just about to post a response when I read @amvanhoose_701479ās response and the main point was almost word for word what I said, plus a bunch of other very detailed analysis. But Iām going to post it anyway. 
I just think it depends on what peopleās definition of āherd immunityā is. It does not mean the disease is eradicated. But it does mean it is under enough control that we can basically go back to our normal lives. We have herd immunity to measles (in most places) but we still have to vaccinate our children and there can still be outbreaks.
In contrast, I probably would not say we have herd immunity for the flu, or at least not all strains. And one point the article is probably trying to make is that new variants will emerge that we donāt have herd immunity to, but framing it that way is demoralizing, IMO.
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My DS11 twins will be 11.5 on 5/24. That rounds up to 12, yes? 
No. Bad @amvanhoose_701479 for even thinking it!
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#vaccinemath
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They way they teach math in school now that totally checks out.
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Thatās kind of where we are right now. Plus our county has no cases- not just no new cases- no cases at all. The rest of the state just behaves as if they have no cases. The basic attitude is- if you want a vaccine, you can get it, and probably already have. If you donāt want it, then COVID is a a risk youāre willing to take.
This was the first Sunday after the bishop lifted the mask mandate for the state. I was worried it would keep people home- but it was packed.
As DH told someone on the airplane- for better or for worse, it seems as if folks have decided that the pandemic is pretty much over here.
ā¦
I had a really interesting week, bopping to New York and then back to rural MT. I did not realize how much I missed flying. I do think some of the airline restrictions make no sense, and honestly seem like ways to just get away with cutting service- like they still serve booze and sad little bags of pretzels and water on American, but no food. I guess they like drunk passengers?
@troyo and @mommylove_197387 the weather in Buffalo was great! We went to the zoo when it was 44 degrees and sunny- and I drove DH nuts singing the songs from the Lion King.
Who can be grumpy around meerkats?
We went to the Martin House, took walks in Forest Lawn, and had in general had great visit with DD.
Then we came home. I was greeted by this when I woke up this morning:
So you see, a little snow in April doesnāt bother me. Snow in May does bother me. Thereās 5 inches more in the forecast 
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