“It’s Time to Stand Up for Children”

With the rapid spread of the Delta variant just as children are returning to school, NewYork-Presbyterian pediatricians-in-chief Dr. Sallie Permar and Dr. Jordan Orange have issued a call to action: Put children’s health first.

In an opinion piece published in STAT, Dr. Permar, the pediatrician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Dr. Orange, pediatrician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, discuss the sacrifices children made last year to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and what adults can now do to protect them. “[Take] the simple steps needed to keep kids safe: getting vaccinated and continuing to support requirements for children and adults around them to wear face masks to protect unvaccinated children,” they write.

“It’s time to stand up for children, who have been pushed aside since the response to the pandemic began. Pediatricians, parents, educators, lawmakers, and others need to protect kids’ education — and their lives — by giving them immunity and protection that will prevent disease.”

Read the full op-ed here.

Jordan Scott Orange, M.D., Ph.D., is the physician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and chair of pediatrics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. An international leader in pediatric primary immunodeficiency and the immunobiology of human natural killer cells, Dr. Orange in his research combines novel disease discovery with basic cell research to translate underlying biological mechanisms of disease into clinical applications. His research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health and he has published over 250 papers. Dr. Orange is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Pediatric Society and was a recipient of the E. Mead Johnson Award for research accomplishment in pediatrics from the Society for Pediatric Research.

Sallie Permar, M.D., Ph.D., helms the pediatrics enterprise at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Komansky Children’s Hospital. She is also the Nancy C. Paduano Professor of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine. Board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric infectious disease, Dr. Permar has been honored with several prestigious awards, including the 2014 Young Investigator Award and the 2020 E. Mead Johnson Award from the Society for Pediatric Research, the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, and most recently the Gale and Ira Drukier Prize in Children’s Health Research from Weill Cornell Medicine.