Zoe Tu, a seventh-grade student in Brooklyn, enjoys celebrating her birthday with a Haagen-Dazs ice cream cake flavoured with dulce de leche. It was no different on her 12th birthday, which was also accompanied with a special treat of another kind: her Covid vaccination.
When Zoe had her vaccination on Aug. 2, the first day she became eligible for it, she was also given a $100 gift card to the Barclays Center as part of a vaccine incentive programme. (Her mother let her to spend the money on anything she desired.)
“The nurse was overjoyed when she realised she could wish me a happy birthday,” Zoe recounted.
In an interview with NBC News, Zoe’s mother, Nicole Tu, claimed she had informed her daughter that she could wait if she wanted to. Zoe, on the other hand, said, “I knew that was the fastest way to acquire it.” I was overjoyed because I could finally feel secure.”
Many birthdays are seen as rites of passage, particularly for children and teenagers. Getting to the age of 14 or 15 allows you to start high school; becoming 17 allows you to see R-rated movies; turning 18 gives you the ability to vote; and getting 21 takes you to the legal drinking age in many jurisdictions.
However, since the beginning of May, the 12th birthday has taken on new importance, since the Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use permission for the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccination for children aged 12 and older.
According to statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in early September, at least 52 percent of children aged 12 to 17 in the United States have gotten at least one dose of a vaccine, with about 40 percent having received all recommended doses of vaccination. According to scientists, a judgement on whether or not children younger than 12 may get the vaccines might take many months.
During that weekend, there was an explosion of enthusiasm for his shot at the Javits Center in Manhattan. He was looking forward to the start of a new school year that could be better than the previous one. Sebastian’s school last year implemented a hybrid of in-person and remote learning, and on the days when he wasn’t in class, he missed the opportunity to chat with his classmates in the corridor. He further noted that remote courses delivered via Zoom removed the need for students to travel between home and school.
