Millennials are more likely to die as a result of a car crash than they are from the coronavirus, statistically speaking. But you know what’s orders of magnitude safer than the coronavirus for all people? The coronavirus vaccine.

Around 19 in 20 people in the United States killed by COVID-19 so far were older than 50. Given the very limited evidence of children contracting and transmitting the coronavirus, it would be a travesty to extend school closures or mask mandates for even one day longer. But as the nation races to reach the point of herd immunity, to protect transplant recipients and others who cannot develop antibodies, and to avoid the evolution of a variant that is not blocked by our vaccines, it’s worth making the statistical case for the vaccine specifically as it pertains to young people, who are least likely to want their shots.