Should Parents Vaccinate Their Young Children?

Jimena Palomo, Staff Writer

When 2020 arrived, the beginning of the coronavirus brought alarming news which left lots of people with many worries. This news of a global pandemic became something dreadful that affected us in different ways. Many people did not like the idea of being isolated during the holidays or having to wear masks year-round.

This affected people emotionally and mentally, and for many, it took people a while to get used to staying six feet away and wearing masks in public. Even now in 2022, videos are shared online of people having disputes in public areas because they are being asked to wear masks or stay six feet away from other people.

After a long and dreadful year of being isolated and students working remotely and doing online school, a vaccine had become available and slowly people began to get vaccinated. This brought many people a sense of hope that this depressing situation would become better and things will go back to normal.

Although there was not a vaccine available back then, people took action online to express their own opinions. These opinions caused people to have mixed emotions as many viewers came across these negative posts. People will always have their own opinions, but now everyone is eligible to get their own vaccine for the protection of their own health and the health of those around them.

There are still many people who refuse to get vaccinated because they do not believe that a vaccine will save their life or because they have certain beliefs that are based on their culture or religion.

The first group of people who were eligible to get the Covid-19 vaccine, the elderly, received the vaccine and the chances of seniors getting infected and hospitalized by the disease became much slimmer. Later on, the vaccine became available to adults and young adults, and eventually, everyone over 5 years old became eligible to get the vaccine.

Now the vaccine is confirmed and approved by both the FDA the CDC that it is safe for young children to get vaccinated. But what do parents think of this recent news as everyone from the age of five years old and up are eligible?

Many parents might have the opinion that this is not safe to do just yet as their young body may have a different effect from the vaccine than somebody who is older as their bodies are not yet fully developed. Furthermore, one reason why parents may refuse to get their young children vaccinated is that even healthcare workers have stated that is not very probable for a young child or teen to get Covid-19, and if they do get it, the chances of them losing their lives or getting hospitalized are very slim.

Many parents will continue to have their own opinions about why they refuse to vaccinate their own children. I also feel like they deserve to make their own decisions based on what they want for their own children who do not have the ability to make these decisions on their own yet.

I also personally feel like they should think about the outcome of their decisions. One potential outcome of this decision is possibly not keeping other family members safe who are vulnerable to Covid-19. Yet they are the parents in charge, and it is their own decision to make.