New Jersey boy gets vaccinated for his 12th birthday after losing his dad to Covid last year

[Jilly_in_VA]

For his 12th birthday, Gavin Roberts only had one request: get vaccinated against the coronavirus that killed his dad last year. So when he reached the legal age to get the shot on Sunday, his wish was finally granted.

Alice Roberts, Gavin's mother, told NBC New York that her son's decision was strongly influenced by his dad's death early in the pandemic.

"I kept asking him what he wanted for his birthday," she said. "He was always saying it's the vaccine, we're going to get that."

Charles "Rob" Roberts, a Glen Ridge police officer and Gavin's father, died of Covid-19 on May 11, three weeks after he collapsed in his home in late April, Alice wrote in a column published on NJ.com Sunday. He was 45.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-jersey-boy-gets-vaccinated-his-12th-birthday-after-losing-n1279815
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The kids are all right!

[RockRaven]

1. Based on the dates, I'm pretty sure that father could have been vaccinated if he wanted to be...

Don't know about NJ, but in CA cops were basically at the front of the line for vaccines alongside health care workers and the elderly. By April/May shots were opened to all adults, regardless.

Sometimes I wonder what all of these thousands upon thousands of kids who lost willfully-unvaccinated parents are gonna think about those dead parents as they grow up... Sadness? Anger? Pity? Contempt?

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. It's confusing because the headline says "last year," but the story says, "in May."

Makes a big difference if it was May 2020 verses May 2021.

[RockRaven]

3. Now that I read it again, it says the father dies "early" in the pandemic, so it must have been

May 2020. So no vaccine possible.