Dear Governor Murphy,

We are writing to you as concerned parents of unvaccinated children in West Windsor and Plainsboro township schools entering the 2021-2022 school year in the townships of West Windsor and Plainsboro. We respectfully urge you to strongly consider offering virtual school in addition to the in-person option to the unvaccinated under 12-year-old children at least until such time these children are vaccinated. We recognize that the virtual option may not work for everyone, therefore we urge you to offer flexibility to concerned parents and children.

As you are aware, the Delta variant of COVID-19 has caused major surges in total case counts across the country and globally. As per NY times, cases in the United states have steadily increased since early July 2021 with 186,840 new cases reported on Friday, Aug-13 . The Delta variant is nearly twice as contagious as the prior variants and as contagious as chickenpox- meaning more than the seasonal flu, the common cold or polio.  Pediatricians in New York City, where 67% of the adults are fully vaccinated, are unable to explain why one kid gets much sicker than another. Late breaking news from a largely vaccinated state of Oregon also indicates a surge despite the vaccinations

 As close to nearly 2 million children in the state of New Jersey head back to nearly 2000 elementary and 800 middle public schools in-person within the 600 school districts across the state, come September 2021, we as parents are worried about the dangerous confluence created because of the highly contagious virus variant; large numbers of unvaccinated children in classes; closed rooms and ventilation in fall and subsequent winter months and enforcement of highly suspect mask protocol in kids this age. As of August-5 this year, children represent 14.3% of all cases. As you are also aware, children under 12 years old are not eligible for a vaccine yet and constitute 14.5% of the US population. For the week ending August-5 this year children were 15.0% of reported weekly COVID-19 cases in the US and in the state of NJ, 10.3% (95,180) of the population affected is within the age group of 5-17 years old (Case and Mortality Summary (arcgis.com).

It would be a shame to not to learn from the schools in other states that have started classes before us and offered only in-person attendance. Just today Pickens county school in upstate South Carolina moved to virtual learning in an emergency session. The latest data indicates that children are now making up a larger percentage of cases than with previous variants of the virus: 19 percent in the last week of July, up from just under 17 percent the week before. This rising percentage is most likely due to the fact that elementary schools (under 12yo) are not vaccinated yet and only about 53% of 16-17-year-olds and 43% of 12-15-year-olds are vaccinated as of Aug-5, per American Academy of Pediatrics.

In summary, the number of infections in children is on the rise- exponentially ! There were 93,824 new cases from July-30 to August-5 2021 in children, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics where the children represented 15% of the weekly reported cases. That is a significant increase from 71,726 new cases in the last week of July, which doubled from 38,654 cases from the previous week. Over two weeks, 7/22/21-08/05/21 there is a 4% increase in cumulative number of cases in children according to a summary of findings by the American association of pediatrics. By the time this petition reaches your office, this number may have well doubled or tripled. After declining in early summer this year, cases in children have steadily increased since the beginning of July, so earlier school plans that some of us also subscribed to and approved of plans no longer hold true. And as infections rise exponentially, the number of hospitalizations and deaths will too. With millions of children infected, “even a small percentage adds up to tens of thousands of children being hospitalized for COVID-19,” according to a pediatric infectious disease specialist at University of Virginia Health in Charlottesville. Furthermore, a worrying statistic is that as of Aug-4, COVID-19 has killed 416 children in the US since January 2020 and anything that causes the death of more than 350 children annually automatically ranks in the top 10 causes of childhood death, according to the same specialist.

There is paucity of data currently to ascertain the unknowns, primarily how the virus affects kids in general, how often the kids develop lingering symptoms and why some children develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS) upon recovery from the typical symptoms. Additionally, there is data to suggest that it does make adults sicker. While we recognize that many kids get away with little to minimal symptoms, for some of the children this infection will prove to be life changing as they end up in the ICU due to MIS, develop long COVID, suffer organ damage and end up losing a year or more. The American association of pediatrics recognizes that there is an urgent need to collect data on the long term impact of the pandemic on children including ways that the virus may harm the long-term physical health, as well as its emotional and mental effects. Limited data on long covid in children reveals a disturbing picture – children after recovering have experienced sleep, extracurricular activities, fatigue memory and concentration difficulties many months after being infected. The New York Times reports that at an April congressional hearing, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, cited one study suggesting that between 11 percent and 15 percent of infected youths might “end up with this long-term consequence, which can be pretty devastating in terms of things like school performance.” Furthermore, some of us live with vaccinated but vulnerable adults in our households and the kids could bring this home to these adults.

Last, but not the least, we would also call your attention to children that are considered highly vulnerable due to underlying medical conditions including immunocompromised individuals and unvaccinated younger siblings at home. In our opinion, these individuals need a virtual option regardless of age and vaccination status.  I am not sure if the in-person only option takes into consideration this highly vulnerable demographic. How are the parents of these children expected to continue educating their children?

We, as parents, have workplaces that have continued to delay full openings, approved of virtual work and managed low numbers in office despite masking and upgrading of ventilation systems and seat placements- which begs the question on why we would not afford that flexibility to our children? Our children are not expendable.

We recognize that it will likely take an additional 2-4 months after school starts in September 2021 before the vaccine for under 12-year-old children is available and majority of the children vaccinated. We respectfully reiterate our request that you please consider offering the Virtual school option in addition to the In-person at least till such time these children are vaccinated.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Concerned Parents of Unvaccinated School Children in West Windsor and Plainsboro Townships, New Jersey

Dated: 08/15/2021