People are refusing to get vaccinated and vaccinate their children with increasing frequency, which is related to many factors. The World Health Organization (WHO) has changed its guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination (WHO, 2021). If earlier it opposed vaccinations for children, then in the new version of the document, the organization advises for vaccinating children, but after the vaccine is received by risk groups, including the elderly, health workers, and people with chronic diseases. For children over 12 years of age, WHO recommends the use of the Pfizer / BionTech vaccine (WHO, 2021). Children and adolescents tend to be milder than adults, so unless they are in a group with a higher risk of severe COVID-19. They need to be vaccinated less urgently than the elderly, people with chronic diseases, and medical workers. Hence, children should be vaccinated as well, as long as appropriate health organizations recommend doing so and assure the safety of the vaccination.
Although, in general, the experience of past epidemics suggests that mandatory vaccination can be an effective means of combating the coronavirus pandemic, there are too many additional uncertainties to state this for sure – or even make sufficiently confident predictions. The demand of the US authorities in 1905 for compulsory vaccination was recognized as legal and fair since a person’s refusal to vaccinate puts at risk not only himself but also those around him. Thus, mass vaccination benefits society and the court ruled that in the name of the common good, the freedom of any person can be subjected to all sorts of restrictions (Opel et al., 2021). As the proportion of the vaccinated population grew, outbreaks of dangerous diseases there gradually faded away – until, at some point, the pendulum of history swung in the opposite direction. People who had never seen a single real epidemic in their lives began to fear the side effects of vaccines more than the diseases themselves from which they protect. Hence, mandatory vaccination of children should be implemented worldwide only with strong evidence that the vaccine has no harm.
References
Opel, D. J., Diekema, D. S., & Ross, L. F. (2021). Should we mandate a COVID-19 vaccine for children?. JAMA Pediatrics, 175(2), 125-126.
World Health Organization. (2021). COVID-19 advice for the public: Getting vaccinated.