As childhood COVID infections hit pandemic highs, experts urge vaccination and testing

Kristina Bowman thought she and her family were doing all the right things to avoid COVID-19. She and her husband got vaccinated as soon as they were eligible. They only invited other vaccinated people to their home. They always wore masks in public.

So when her two young kids came down with fevers in mid-July, she was shocked.

Bowman’s parents, both vaccinated, were visiting from Montana at the time. A few days after her dad arrived, he started coughing.

“My mom told him he needed to go to the doctor … because he was coughing so much,” Bowman said.

She later added, “My first thought was for my kids.”