'Wear A Mask,' Dr. Mallika Marshall Answers Kids' Questions About COVID-19 As School Begins
BOSTON (CBS) - Jeremiah Burns, Clayton Prinn and Rhea Mehra are all enjoying their last few days of summer and looking forward to heading back to class in-person.
All three are students at the Eliot School in Boston's North End, the very first Boston school to shut down due to a positive COVID-19 case back in March of 2020.
As they get ready for school these kids had a lot of questions about the virus and how it would impact them as they head back to school full-time for the first time in a year-and-a-half. So, I sat down with them to help answer those questions.
Jeremiah: "How can we help ourselves not get sick?"
Dr. Mallika: "That's a great question. One of the most important things you can do because you are not old enough to get the shot is to wear your mask."
Jeremiah: "What if a person is coming up to you and you don't have a mask, do you just walk away so you don't get sick?"
Dr. Mallika: "Yes, that's what we call social distancing."
Clayton: "What if you don't have a mask, can you just pull your shirt up (over your nose)?"
Dr. Mallika: "So unfortunately, a shirt doesn't filter the virus out very well, so that's why you really need to wear a mask like the one we are wearing."
Reah: "Has anyone got the vaccine and then got sick?"
Dr. Mallika: "These are called breakthrough infections and that happens because even though vaccines are really good at preventing infection, they can't do it all the time. If you get the vaccine, but you get infected, you are much less likely to get really sick."
Rhea: "If someone older than us gets sick, what can doctors do to help them?"
Dr. Mallika: "There are some medications that we can give to grown ups, things called monoclonal antibodies, that can help their bodies fight off the virus."
As far as the mask mandate goes, these kids don't like it but they get it.
"Everyone would be sick," Jeremiah said. "And having all the vaccines doesn't actually help that much because we haven't got the kids vaccine."
If you have a question for Dr. Mallika Marshall, email her or message her on Facebook or Twitter.
Dr. Mallika is offering her best advice, but as always, consult your personal doctor before making any decisions about your personal health.
