Just 4% of Pa. kids under 5 have gotten a shot | Coronavirus Updates Newsletter

The gist: New data shows that few parents — both in Pennsylvania and nationwide — are getting their young children vaccinated, with vaccination rates for kids under 5 hanging in the single digits. That news comes as the safety of giving melatonin, a diet supplement used as a sleep aid, to kids to combat sleep routines upended by the pandemic is being questioned. And, down the shore, COVID-10 has caused a boardwalk staple — free samples — to all but vanish.

📥 Tell us: What’s making your life better right now as you navigate the pandemic? Send us a note, and we’ll share some responses in next week’s newsletter. Please keep it to 35 words.

📰 Sign up for Must-Read Alerts: Get must-reads, our most fascinating, in-depth stories, along with timely news to stay informed by signing up for our alerts.

— Nick Vadala (@njvadala, health@inquirer.com)

If you see this 🔑 in today’s newsletter, that means we’re highlighting our exclusive journalism. You need to be a subscriber to read these stories.

Nationwide, vaccination rates among children under 5 are at 2.8%, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. In Pennsylvania, the rate of kids who have received at least one dose is slightly higher at 4% — or about 28,000 children under 5. And Philly adults aren’t rushing out to get booster shots, with about 36% of city residents 18 older having received one. Read more about the latest vaccination numbers.

🤒 A Philly-area infectious disease specialist weighs in on what President Joe Biden’s COVID diagnosis tells us about the current state of the pandemic.

🏢 Desk workers may never again fill the towers that make up Center City at pre-pandemic levels. But Philly may yet find a post-pandemic future as a “bedroom city.” 🔑

🏘️ During the pandemic, young adults moved back in with their parents, and then back out again, causing unprecedented contractions and expansions in the country’s total number of households.

😴 With the pandemic upending sleep routines, the use of melatonin in children has shot up significantly as more parents turn to the dietary supplement as a sleep aid. But is it safe?

🏖️ COVID has impacted just about everything — including the free samples on the Jersey Shore boardwalks, a practice that some businesses have now abandoned.

🌆 Philly lost population early in the pandemic. But since mid-2021, the city population grew by 0.8%, while Brooklyn, Chicago, and San Francisco haven’t enjoyed a single month of population gain since March 2020.

📈 Coronavirus cases are falling in Pennsylvania and rising in New Jersey. Track the latest data here.

We’re asking what’s making your life better right now as you navigate the pandemic. Here’s what you told us:

😷 “The people who are masking and the few places requiring masks make me feel safer, along with ample room for outside dining.”

When Latifah Lackey was growing up in North Philly in the 1980s, her grandmother used to give her a dollar to go see Miss Cookie, who was known in her neighborhood as “The Candy Lady.” Lackey, now 45, still spends her money on candy — but now she’s also making a living from it as the owner and operator of Candygyrl, Philly’s only all-candy food truck.

🥖 Now you don’t have to just eat Amoroso’s — you can wear the popular Philly bread brand, too, thanks to a new streetwear line.

🤼 Let’s get ready to rumble! After more than 20 years, WWE WrestleMania is coming back to Philly in 2024 for a run at Lincoln Financial Field.

🛸 In pop culture, all roads lead back to Philadelphia — including director Jordan Peele’s latest horror masterpiece, Nope. And this time, it’s thanks to the University of Pennsylvania.

There’s not much to miss about the early days of the pandemic, when it was hard to find everything from booze to groceries — if you had the nerve to leave the house, that is. But there was a bright spot from that time: fancy takeout. Now, thanks to a new dining-subscription platform launching in Philly, that bright spot is here to stay with offerings from Ange Branca’s Kampar Kitchen, chef Ari Miller’s Musi BYOB, Messina Social Club’s Little Noodle Pasta Co., and more.