Currently, parents of children diagnosed with a life threatening disease are not considered “caregivers” or “essential” by the initial CDC guidelines and receive no special treatment in receiving the vaccine. This petition is calling for the relief of unnecessary stressors caused by the COVID-19 pandemic burdened on parents of children with a life threatening illness. We, the undersigned, believe that this is an oversight, and that these parents, who are undeniably essential caregivers in their child’s fight against life threatening illnesses, be included in the Phase 1 rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The fight a family faces when their child is diagnosed with a life threatening illness is daunting and frightening in the most normal of times. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the stress placed on the family is nearly unbearable. Many children who are fighting a life threatening illness have severely compromised immune systems, or will go through procedures that see their immune systems rendered ineffective. This makes life for the parents of the children fraught with danger, as exposure to the virus could mean death for their child that they are fighting so hard for. These parents, who should not be expected to choose between leaving their children alone or potentially exposing them to a fatal virus, spend their days in overcrowded hospitals as well as managing their family’s day-to-day life. These are the scary realities that parents of children with a life threatening illness face. This can be alleviated by amending current CDC guidelines. Because the children fighting for their lives cannot receive the vaccine themselves, it should be policy to include the families of these children in the Phase 1 rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.

We are calling for the agencies and individuals who have the ability to change this policy to do so in a timely manner. The group that has the power to swiftly change this oversight is the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The responsibility of this group is to make vaccine recommendations. The committee’s 15 members are:

• Chair: Dr. José Romero, Secretary of Health at Arkansas Department of Health. Little Rock, Arkansas.
• Executive Secretary: Dr. Amanda Cohn, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Atlanta, Georgia.
• Dr. Robert Atmar, Baylor College of Medicine. Houston, Texas.
• Dr. Kevin Ault, University of Kansas Medical Center. Kansas City, Kansas.
• Lynn Bahta, RN, Minnesota Department of Health. St. Paul, Minnesota.
• Dr. Beth Bell, University of Washington. Seattle, Washington.
• Dr. Henry Bernstein, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Cohen Children’s Medical Center. New Hyde Park, New York.
• Dr. Sharon Frey, Saint Louis University Medical School. St. Louis, Missouri.
• Dr. Paul Hunter, City of Milwaukee Health Department. Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• Dr. Grace Lee, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University School of Medicine. Stanford, California.
• Dr. Veronica McNally, Franny Strong Foundation. West Bloomfield, Michigan.
• Dr. Katherine Poehling, Wake Forest School of Medicine. Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
• Dr. Pablo Sánchez, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Columbus, Ohio.
• Dr. Peter Szilagyi, University of California, Los Angeles. Los Angeles, California.
• Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot, Vanderbilt University. Nashville, Tennessee.

This fight is not a theoretical one. The Gourley family, from Austin, Texas, is experiencing this frightening situation today. In late July, their six year old son Lucas was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a rare form of cancer that affects his blood and bone marrow. The battle against AML has seen them move from Austin, to Houston, to Cincannati, and finally to Philadelphia, where they have been battling at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. All of this occurring during a pandemic where getting sick could have meant the worst for Lucas. Lucas’ parents, Erin and Brian, have had to go to extreme measures to attempt to stay COVID free, all while trading responsibilities that see them caring for Lucas’ siblings and being at the hospital driving the fight to get Lucas healthy.

This fight is not for the Gourley family alone. There are untold numbers of families in this country today who are in a similar situation, having to fight off a virus while also raging the toughest battle a family could face. However, this can be fixed now. There is a vaccine. This virus can become one less thing that these families have to worry about. So please sign this petition, share it with your network, and if you know someone who can bring this change to the world, push them to do so.