Faces of the Fight from Alison Routledge, RN: Get a vaccine and protect our kids
By Alison Routledge, Registered Nurse with the Pediatric transport team of Saskatchewan
I’m sorry, I can’t just sit back and watch this happen anymore without saying something.
Adults have vaccinations at their disposal to protect themselves and those around them from COVID-19. But some of those eligible still don’t want to get vaccinated.
But kids - every kid under the age of 12 – don’t have that choice. They are suffering in this wave and the only people who can protect them are adults.
The only way to protect our children is to get vaccinated because guess what – it is affecting children and some are really, really sick…
It’s not fun watching kids struggle to breathe, but I’ve held these kids’ hands, watched the fear in their eyes, heard them asking if they are going to okay, been there with them as we tell them, “We are going to give you a breathing tube now, so you are going to go to sleep for a bit.”
I’ve done my part to protect others – my children, yours, and the adults of this province. I don’t know if I could handle knowing that I gave COVID to my child or yours, if they died and I hadn’t done everything in my power to protect them. We have the tools to protect them - safe and effective vaccines.
It’s super scary how many kids aged 0-11 have tested positive for COVID-19.
I know the vaccine is scary to some people, but it’s safe and effective. Trust the research. This is not new. They have been working on mRNA vaccines for more than 10 years, so there has been a lot of research into them.
I know some people are going to disagree with me, but if you are unvaccinated, I seriously hope I never have to see your child lying in a hospital bed, struggling to breathe. As a parent, I can almost guarantee you are going to feel pretty guilty knowing that you could have done something to protect them (because that is our job as parent) and you didn’t do it.
Get a vaccine. Now. Protect your kids.
