There are 32 valentines on their way to special recipients. These people are on my list because they hold the future of my 4-year-old granddaughter in their hands.
They hold the hearts of millions of American parents in the form of a deep trust extended to people making powerful decisions about our children’s health. They are doctors, professors and experts whose decisions will be weighed on the scales of human history. I want them to be Scarlett’s valentine as they weigh an “emergency” authorization which will affect millions of our most innocent and youngest members of society whose whole lives are nurtured by those dreams of goodness, charity and hope bestowed on them by their parents and those who love them. With that comes our trust in the experts who are there by their sacred oaths taken to do no harm to us and our kids.
As parents we are bound to teach and protect our kids, through our own examples of duty to do no harm. We strive to instill this and pass it along to our children. Because of that we spend a fair amount of time modeling responsibility, ethics, reason and respect for others. Sometimes we falter, but we get back up and do our best to mentor our children simply by the way in which we choose to approach important decisions, whether swiftly wishing or with careful consideration.
Being a parent is knowing when to admit you’re wrong. With that comes grace and dignity, and sticking to your guns for what is true. With that comes courage and redemption. My valentine to all parents is in these lines of love: acknowledge your daily struggle which tests each of us and prepares us to be better parents than we thought we could be. We do this for our children, because someday they will teach their children. The best struggles are lessons learned from those based on the honest to goodness, miserable and marvelous stuff of life.
To my special recipients, the doctors, professors and experts, I mail valentines which you can hold in your hands. I want you to understand that you also hold the hearts of millions in your hands. I want you to know with all my heart that I have no choice but to trust your decisions which will ultimately have great meaning to my grandchildren’s lives, and all the youngest members of our society. I ask that you be true to us.
Please, Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology Dr. Arnold Monto, the acting chair of Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, see my 4-year-old granddaughter’s photo. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research out of Silver Springs, Md., please read my valentine with an earnest, dispassionate love of data. I pray, Dr. Paul Annunziato, Head of Vaccines Clinical Research at Merck in Pennsylvania, that you picture young Scarlett, running across the park, her heart pumping strongly.
I hope, Capt. Amanda Cohn, the chief medical officer at the National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases, that you’ll hear her sweet voice as she counts in French. To Dr. Hayley Gans, professor of pediatrics at Stanford University Medical Center, Scarlett has two cats and a dog she adores. To Dr. Michael Kurilla with the Division of Clinical Innovation at the National Institutes of Health, can you see her beautiful smile? Dear Dr. H. Cody Meissner, the professor of pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine, consider she loves to read. To the Honorable Dr. Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases, at Children’s in Philadelphia, understand Scarlett makes perfect snow angels. And to Dr. Steven Pergam, medical director for infection prevention at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, please see that millions of kids like her recently learned to ride a bike on their own.
I hope Janet Woodcock, acting FDA commissioner, and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that we send all the love we can muster so that the hearts of our children can beat with promise for years to come.
Please wait on emergency use authorization.
Tell Pfizer that Scarlett and 20 million American children between the ages of 6 months and 4 years want them to be as sure as sure can be before asking parents to take a chance on their kids. Don’t break our hearts.
Bonnie Toomey’s stories, essays, and poems have been featured in Baystateparent Magazine, New Hampshire Parents Magazine, Baystate Echo, Penwood Review, and Solace in a Book. She worked as an adjunct at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, where she earned a master’s degree in literacy. She writes about life in the 21st century and lives in New Hampshire with her husband. Learn more at www.thedeepbeautybook.com/writers-2/bonnie-j-toomey.
