“It has been one of the really great highlights of my career to work with Children’s Law Center in so many different ways." - Dr. Lee Beers.

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Lee Beers, American Academy of Pediatrics president and medical director for Community Health and Advocacy at Children’s National Hospital. Dr. Beers is also a longtime Children’s Law Center partner – from her early days as a pediatrician where her office was right next to our Healthy Together Director, Tracy Goodman!

Dr. Beers joined our staff, partners and supporters to discuss the top of mind issues for everyone at the moment – children's health and the return to school.

Keep reading for some of Dr. Beers’ key insights on managing risk and watch the full recording to get more of her tips, learn how her own family has navigated safety and wellness during the pandemic and hear her answers to questions from participants.

Insight #1: The Delta variant doesn't seem to be causing more severe illness in children.

Dr. Beers noted that, as much as doctors have learned so far from pandemic data, the percentages of sick children have not been greater, but the Delta variant spreads rapidly and is more dire in places where the rates of COVID infection are fairly high.

“What we’re seeing now is that the Delta variant doesn’t seem to be causing more severe illness in kids,” says Dr. Beers. “However, it is more contagious. If it’s a more contagious variant, then children are still going to spread it more.”

Insight #2: We can manage risk by thinking in terms of layered precautions.

Dr. Beers said we should all think about how we can layer protections to assess and diminish risk. “In public health, you have to design recommendations knowing that you don’t live in a perfect world – that a kid can pull his mask off or wipe their nose and touch something,” she shared.

She emphasized that – for those 12 and older and who are eligible – getting vaccinated is one of the most important things they can do to protect themselves and their community. Wearing cloth masks, washing hands, maintaining proper air ventilation and keeping 3+ feet of distance from others are all additional layers of precautions we can take to ensure there’s less exposure for unvaccinated children. She also spoke to the logistical challenges many schools are facing in meeting all these layers.

Insight #3: We need to continue being creative and innovative.

While Dr. Beers acknowledged the challenges, she also encouraged all adults to continue thinking creatively in terms of adjusting their approaches. Specifically, she highlighted ideas on how to make the layers of precaution fit the needs of different age groups.

For pre-K children, she said – make it fun: “Make games out of mask wearing or an art project to design a mask for yourself.” Or for situations like naptime, be strategic: “set up cots so they alternate head to foot so that you don’t have heads all right next to each other.”

Dr. Beers also answered audience questions about air travel with unvaccinated children and how to fix the systems that were broken before the pandemic and failed our children and families these last 18 months. Listen to the full event here.

We will share what we learned with DC children and families as they navigate the complexity that comes with the return to school. And I encourage you to forward this recording to a family member, friend or neighbor who might find her insights useful!

With gratitude,

P.S. Want to watch more of our past community conversations? Check them all out here! And keep an eye out for more information on our next 25^th anniversary event – coming this October!

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