As of this week, parents in all but one state in the U.S. will be able to obtain vaccination against the coronavirus for children under 5 to as young as 6 months. Florida, as usual, remains an outlier, with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis putting his political ambitions above the health and safety of his constituents by refusing to preorder the new vaccines or to make them available through state health departments. Still, the fact Missouri and other red states didn't follow his example is an encouraging sign that perhaps some in the GOP are starting to recover from this aggressive infection of anti-science zealotry.
Disinformation notwithstanding, the data is clear:
After millions of immunizations during roughly a year and a half now, the vaccines have proven remarkably safe and effective at both preventing infection and muting the worst of the symptoms when infection does occur. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in some studies, hospitalization rates for the unvaccinated are more than 20 times higher than for those who are fully vaccinated and boostered. For all that, serious side effects from the vaccines are rare, and there's virtually no evidence they have contributed to any fatalities.