COVID Vaccination and Our Children
It has been a year of decisions — and these COVID-era decisions have been tough, testing our beliefs, our characters, our resilience. Some decisions were highly personal, while others had a wider effect on families and even communities.
As of May 10th of this year, one more decision has become very pertinent to many parents as Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine has been approved for use in kids ages 12 through 15. This question on vaccination weighs on the minds of parents and will test more than their personal values or parental skills. Each family will have to decide in relation to their children and whether to trust in the value and potency of the vaccine to give their kids a chance to be the new generation — ones with protection early in their lives against COVID-19.
While some countries around the world experience vaccine shortage, like India, Africa, Ukraine, the generous supply is met with strong vaccine hesitancy in the United States. Out of those who are not yet vaccinated, only 9 percent stated they plan to do so at some point in the future, according to the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor.
The vaccination decision is serious business as it teeters on the edge of highly personal and profoundly global. Involving not only the emotional response of trust or fear, but such factors as religion, personal medical history, access to vaccines, regulations, and community values also come into play. People must understand the vaccine’s implications on their personal bodies and future well-being as well as keep in mind the benefits of vaccination for the greater population and worldwide health. It is only understandable that it gets a lot more complicated when kids are involved. The New York Times reports that many already-vaccinated parents are in the “wait-and-see” stage. While they are not opposed to vaccination, they are just worried; that worry is inversely proportionate to the age of their kids.
It does not take long to start feeling very ambivalent when considering vaccination. Whether reading through the history of vaccination or the latest news headlines, stories of what has gone wrong with the vaccine itself (vaccinated people getting polio in 1955 when live polio virus survived in two vaccine batches), or of complications linked to the vaccine (rare blood clots emerging in people after vaccinating with Vaxzevria (formerly COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca) or Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine). After all, it is our children we are talking about! Who would want to willingly inject their own children without 100% proof of efficacy and safety (unless you are Dr. Jonas Salk, of course!)?
Yet it also pays to read further, learning about the people who have helped advocate for vaccinations and saved lives by their decisions and examples. For gaining control of smallpox, we can thank Catherine the Great (who was quick to judge anyone afraid to inoculate an idiot) as well as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, who, by their public orders and personal promotions, helped save soldiers, kids, and others from dying of the disease. Elvis Presley made it a point to publicly receive the Salk polio vaccine to help build public trust and strengthen the mass vaccination campaign efforts.
We are seeing the same exact spread of reactions to the vaccine availability in our microcosm. Some of our friends and family have gotten their children vaccinated the very day it was approved and even before (in some states), while others are in the “wait-and-see” category. There are families where kids would like to be vaccinated, but their parents aren’t ready to take that step.
While we did not rush out to be the first in line, we did schedule an appointment through our pediatrician’s vaccine clinic, and our 13-year-old received her first dose this past Saturday.
The decision seemed right for our family, and it was decided as a family. We followed the news and discussed it with our kids and made sure their thoughts were counted. Our oldest thought vaccination was the way forward yet was a little nervous as she is generally apprehensive of needles. All she asked for was to have a few days for her to digest what’s to come. She was given that chance as well as the time to speak with her friends who got vaccinated ahead of her.
With her second dose ahead of us, we also wait for the news about vaccines for kids 5 through 12 years old. Our youngest is sure she will be vaccinated before the next school year begins — our little optimist!
Vaccination for us is hope. Hope for less risk for the kids, hope for a fun summer, hope for fuller life experiences for all. We need that optimism to go forward. And to go forward, we need to do something. “Wait-and-see” has been done for long enough this year. Even though we do not know everything to alleviate all our fears and concerns, we hope for the best. It feels good to act.
