Are We Vaxxed Yet?

With delta surging and the U.S. child vaccination campaign lagging, it might be time to consider requiring Covid immunization in schools—as we do for many diseases that pose a less urgent threat

- By Riley Griffin and Suzi Ring

One afternoon in May, Michael Joseph Smith, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, strides in baseball patterned socks through a Duke University facility in Durham, N.C., to welcome Cameron O’Hara, a 14-year-old vaccine trial subject. Smith has been acting as a co-principal investigator at one of the sites that have been testing the PfizerBioNTech vaccine in kids since last winter. O’Hara and his mother have come to the office following the “unblinding” process—in which he’d learned, to his disappointment, that he’s been getting a placebo—to get his first dose of the real thing. He crosses his sneakers and grips his mom’s hand as the needle goes into his arm.

O’Hara is eager to return to the classroom this fall as a high school freshman. He’s planning to celebrate his second dose with a road trip to the Adirondacks to see his grandparents. “The first thing I’m going to do is give them a hug,” he says, bringing his mother to tears. O’Hara’s parents, both pharmacists, encouraged his enrollment in the trial. He’s more enthusiastic about vaccination than many of his friends, some of whom fear needles, some of whom carry youthful delusions of immortality.