Children are generally the healthiest members of society. Even with this pandemic, the number of children getting seriously ill and dying is very low. According to Seattle and British data found here (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/10/12/covid-vaccine-mandates-moderna-california-texas/6097768001/) unvaccinated children face less risk than most vaccinated adults. The stats from Seattle show that unvaccinated children are hospitalized at the same rate as vaccinated adults in their 50s and the British data shows that unvaccinated children under 12 have less risk than adults in the 30s. These studies led to Britain's University of Southampton's pediatric infectious-disease specialist to say that Covid is not an extraordinary threat to children, but that "in fact, it's very ordinary."

Now why should we push something on children when it is hardly a threat to them and in many cases we now see heart issues such as myocarditis arising in greater numbers. We must not force children to get vaccinated when it does not benefit them, it should be up to them and their doctors. If we do force them when they have very little risk from Covid but greater risk from the vaccines, then we are saying to them that you must accept risk to protect the adults and that is as backwards as society can get. We do not force children to take risks to save adults.

I urge you to vote against Covid vaccine mandates for school age children as they do not need it for their safety and may in fact need to not get it for their safety.