Vaccines offered hope for the parents of young ones. Now what?

Despairing over the Senate stalemate won't fix voting rights [View in browser](    [❤️]( January 23, 2022 Dear Cog reader, Fellow Cog editor Frannie and I are the mothers of kids younger than 5. So we continue to sit and wait for our youngest to be eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19. (The [latest data]( from Pfizer has dealt another setback.) We’re clear on what the [science tells us]( about the novel coronavirus in small children — that severe cases of illness are mercifully rare — and yet. It sure would be nice to get these little people vaccinated, granting them the extra layer of protection we’ve been able to give our older kids. My 4-year-old doesn’t really remember life before the pandemic. For her, wearing a mask to school is normal. She’s never been to a friend’s birthday at one of those party-factory places with bad food and giant inflatables, or even had an indoor playdate with a friend from school. Getting her immunized would offer up a promise of normalcy. Rebekah Diamond writes for us this week about how demoralizing it feels to have her [vaccine dream deferred](. As a hospital pediatrician in New York City, she’s been treating COVID patients on the frontlines for nearly two years, including during this latest omicron wave. “With the vaccine, and the optimal protection it provides, comes a different future,” she writes. “A chance to finally [restore the world to our children]( Also this week, MIT political science professor Charles Stewart III asks, [what’s next for voting rights]( Democrats’ efforts to pass legislation failed on the Senate floor this week, because two moderate senators opted not to support eliminating the filibuster. But Stewart says it might not be the worst outcome, for Democrats or American democracy. He imagines a world where Republicans are in charge — say, President Ron DeSantis, Sen. Majority Leader Tom Cotton — and the filibuster offers protection against extreme partisan efforts to limit participation. He posits that a [stalemate may not be so bad]( after all. Until next week, Cloe Axelson Editor, Cognoscenti [Follow]( Support the news   Must Reads [For parents of young children, vaccines offered a glimmer of hope. Now what?]( Like a lot of parents, I hitched my hope for the future on being able to vaccinate my young daughter, writes Rebekah Diamond. Feeling the possibility of normal life slip away, even temporarily, is exquisitely painful. [Read more.]( [For parents of young children, vaccines offered a glimmer of hope. Now what?]( Like a lot of parents, I hitched my hope for the future on being able to vaccinate my young daughter, writes Rebekah Diamond. Feeling the possibility of normal life slip away, even temporarily, is exquisitely painful. [Read more.]( [Despairing over the Senate stalemate won't fix voting rights]( Charles Stewart III on why, though profoundly unsatisfying, the status quo on voting rights could be the best option for the moment. [Read more.]( [Despairing over the Senate stalemate won't fix voting rights]( Charles Stewart III on why, though profoundly unsatisfying, the status quo on voting rights could be the best option for the moment. [Read more.]( [My students deserve better than homelessness]( Writer and teacher Jennifer Dines watches her students struggle with classwork when they're worried about their families losing their homes. [Read more.]( [My students deserve better than homelessness]( Writer and teacher Jennifer Dines watches her students struggle with classwork when they're worried about their families losing their homes. [Read more.]( [I can't recall a time I've been more scared as a Jew]( Maybe we of the Jewish faith are the ultimate optimists, sending prayers to a God who has not obviously been moved to tears by our suffering, writes Judy Bolton-Fasman. [Read more.]( [I can't recall a time I've been more scared as a Jew]( Maybe we of the Jewish faith are the ultimate optimists, sending prayers to a God who has not obviously been moved to tears by our suffering, writes Judy Bolton-Fasman. [Read more.]( [The dark side of green tech]( The demand for lithium -- a key element in batteries for everything from cell phones to electric vehicles -- is soaring. And although this technology will be central to the transition away from carbon-based energy, writes Frederick Hewett, there is an ecological price to pay. [Read more.]( [The dark side of green tech]( The demand for lithium -- a key element in batteries for everything from cell phones to electric vehicles -- is soaring. And although this technology will be central to the transition away from carbon-based energy, writes Frederick Hewett, there is an ecological price to pay. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "We are broken. We have nothing left in us but screams of anger and pain." "[COVID Parenting Has Passed the Point of Absurdity]( The Atlantic. "This week’s fight in the US Senate over the voting rights bill is a comma in a much, much longer story." "[Three lessons for the voting rights struggle from the latest Senate setback]( The Guardian. "'I was lucky that I didn’t die.'" "[The Women Who Had Abortions Before Roe v. Wade]( The New York Times. "When winter hit, their parents brought the children to a hospital emergency room for shelter." — Jennifer Dines, "[My students deserve better than homelessness]( ICYMI [I lost to Amy Schneider on 'Jeopardy!' but now I want her to keep winningÂ]( Andrea Asuaje always wanted to be a contestant on "Jeopardy!" She finally got her chance last fall, when she took the stage with Amy Schneider, who was just beginning her record-breaking win streak. [Read more.]( [I lost to Amy Schneider on 'Jeopardy!' but now I want her to keep winningÂ]( Andrea Asuaje always wanted to be a contestant on "Jeopardy!" She finally got her chance last fall, when she took the stage with Amy Schneider, who was just beginning her record-breaking win streak. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences.](  I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. Unsubscribe from all WBUR editorial newsletters [here.](  Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2021 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved.