ST. LOUIS — Jenny Berla has three children, 5-year-old twins and an 8-year-old. And they are really sick of nature hikes, she said.
But, after Berla, her Type 1 diabetic husband and their elderly parents were vaccinated against COVID-19, she looked forward to doing more things with her kids this summer, such as visiting museums, taking theater classes and going on float trips.
Then last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was safe for vaccinated people to go without masks in most settings. St. Louis and St. Louis County governments quickly lifted mask mandates that had been in place for months. Many businesses followed.
The announcements, which came despite the fact less than half of the adult population is fully vaccinated, took many people by surprise.
Berla, 38, of Olivette, suddenly feels a layer of protection between the coronavirus and her children — too young to get vaccinated — is gone. Unvaccinated people are expected to continue wearing a mask in public because they can still spread the virus, but she worries they will not consider the risk and go without.
While she knows a vast majority of children with COVID-19 have no or mild symptoms, she wishes mask mandates stuck around until younger kids became eligible for the vaccine, especially as doctors learn more about the long-term effects of an infection and how the vaccines perform against emerging variants.
"We might never know all these things, but just giving them a chance to be vaccinated first would be nice," Berla said.
Berla joins many parents trying to navigate a new world where people are ditching masks and returning to normal while their young children — anxious for interaction after a year of mostly virtual school or having to avoid day care — are still at risk of getting the coronavirus.
Tami Bowen, 46, of St. Charles, home-schooled her children ages 8 and 10 this past year. Her 10-year-old has dwarfism along with heart and breathing issues and difficulty focusing in virtual classes.
Going into stores are often the only time they are around others, Bowen said. Now they will not go into any business where customers can go mask-free.
"If stores stop requiring them, that will just be more social isolation until they lower the age of who can get vaccinated," Bowen said.
It is too soon to lift mandates, she said. "I feel like the percentage of adults refusing to be vaccinated is too high."
Adults with diseases that weaken their immune systems and the effectiveness of vaccines share the same concerns as young parents about the CDC's new recommendation, which came as the pace of vaccinations has slowed.
The CDC based its recommendation on growing research showing that being fully vaccinated greatly reduces the risk of getting infected and spreading the virus to the others. The seven-day average of new cases in the U.S. — just over 31,000 — are at their lowest levels since June.
Among U.S. adults ages 65 and over who are most at risk from COVID-19, about 85% are either fully vaccinated or on their way. Deaths from the virus at their lowest numbers since July, and hospitalizations are dropping to levels not seen since the pandemic began to ramp up in April.
Last week, vaccine eligibility also expanded to the kids ages 12 to 15, and 600,000 have already gotten their first dose, the CDC reported on Tuesday. In Missouri, 14,000 of the young teens and preteens have gotten their first dose, said state health department spokeswoman Lisa Cox.
There were few caveats to the CDC's recommendation. Everyone should continue to wear a mask while on a plane, bus or train and in places such as hospitals, nursing homes and prisons. Schools should also finish out the school year with their mask-wearing policies intact.
But unlike St. Louis, St. Louis County and Kansas City, Missouri's third-largest city — Springfield — did not ditch its indoor mask mandate just yet.
The city council voted Monday to wait until summer break begins for the area public schools. The mandate won't lift until May 28, to "allow children not yet eligible for a vaccine to continue to be protected with masks," said Springfield-Green County Acting Health Director Katie Towns.
She added, "We need to spend these two weeks working hard to improve our vaccination rates while we wrap up school."
Lagging rates
Missouri's vaccination rates lag behind much of the country, with state data showing just about 42% of adults fully vaccinated. But cases have dropped dramatically. The state is seeing an average of 421 new coronavirus cases a day, down from a peak of 5,258 in late November.
Some extracurricular activities serving mostly kids, such as dance studios with June recitals, are aligning with schools and continuing the same universal mask-wearing policies.
The Center for Creative Arts in University City, which serves hundreds of young children through its summer arts camps, announced Tuesday it is maintaining the same mask-wearing protocol along with other measures such health screenings at entrances and no parents allowed to hang out inside.
"Our priority is always the health and well-being of our stakeholders, especially our students. Many of our students have not had the opportunity to become fully vaccinated," the announcement read.
Experts say without mask mandates, children and vulnerable groups can still take precautions to navigate public spaces safely.
Dr. Ericka Hayes, a pediatric infectious disease specialist with St. Louis Children's Hospital, said parents can find comfort knowing that a tight-fitting, multi-layer mask worn over the nose and mouth can still protect their children.
"Even if there are individuals who are dishonest enough to not be wearing a mask if they are not vaccinated," Hayes said, "you can feel confident that if you are consistently wearing that mask and doing the social distancing, which you should be doing as well, that certainly wearing the mask themselves is highly protective."
Hayes said while vaccinated parents can safely go without a mask around their children, many may wear one when venturing out to model the behavior in their kids who have to stick with mask-wearing. Others might choose to stay masked in public if someone in their family has a weak immune system.
"Those may be scenarios where people may choose to continue to wear masks," she said. "I think for every household, they kind of have to consider and weigh the risks and benefits."
Ask questions
While no vaccine is 100% effective, families can also find assurance knowing that if they are among the small number of those who get infected with COVID-19 despite getting a vaccine, the amount of the virus they are shedding is likely so low they are not infectious, Hayes said.
Hayes encouraged parents to not be afraid to ask those in close contact with their children if they have been vaccinated.
"Hopefully people you socialize with, are friends with or are related to you, everyone is really invested in everyone's safety, and so hopefully you can ask those questions and have those conversations," she said.
Pfizer and BioNTech began in late March testing their vaccine in healthy 6-month to 11-year-old children. If approved, the age group could become eligible before the end of the 2021.
Bowen has to send her children back to school in the fall because she's starting an internship. She said she's worried her school district will drop the mask mandate before children can get the vaccine.
Berla's twins will be starting kindergarten in the fall. She hopes those who are unvaccinated wear a mask as recommended in order to keep cases low and prevent the spread of more contagious variants.
"We are in this situation where everyone's choices impacts everyone else," Berla said, "and it's a hard place to be in."
