Parents, it’s now up to you. COVID vaccines are right for kids and everyone else

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/11/2021 (1130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Parents in Ontario (and soon right across the country) now have an opportunity to do something important for their kids, themselves and everyone else.

They should seize it with both hands.

As of Tuesday, they’ll be able to go online and book an appointment for their children (aged 5 to 11) to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The first shots are expected to be given out on Thursday.

The more kids get vaccinated, and the quicker that happens, the better for them and the better for all of us. It will be another big step toward finally putting this terrible, destructive pandemic behind us.

There’s every reason for parents to sign their kids up without delay, but that can’t be taken for granted.

Instead, there are disturbing signs that a significant minority of parents aren’t going to take the opportunity. One recent survey, by the Angus Reid Institute, suggests only half of parents intend to get their kids vaccinated as soon as possible. And almost a quarter (23 per cent) say they simply don’t plan on having their children inoculated.

That just isn’t good enough. We’ve now lived through 20 months of COVID-19 and we know the damage it wreaks — in lives, in physical and mental health, in the overall well-being of our society and economy.

Parents who refuse to get their children vaccinated, or count themselves among the “hesitant” for whatever reason, are doing everyone a disservice — including the very children they claim to be protecting.

For one thing, the medical evidence is clear. Most young children who get COVID-19 don’t become seriously ill, but some do. And some suffer long-term effects (including a serious condition called multi-system inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C) that are difficult to predict. Vaccines are the best way to protect them, like everyone else, from the disease.

Even kids who don’t get badly ill can spread COVID to others, including more vulnerable people. Surely no child wants to be an unwitting risk to a grandparent or someone with an underlying condition that makes them more susceptible to the disease.

School-age children have already suffered from the “collateral harms” of the pandemic. Their schools have been closed for months and even now many aren’t having a normal school experience. They’re still being kept in cohorts and can’t mix freely with other kids. Ending the pandemic is the only way to recover regular, pre-pandemic life for them, and the quicker the better.

Whatever slight risks from vaccines exist, the dangers of contracting COVID are considerably greater. A basic risk-benefit analysis tips the balance in favour of getting your shots, for the young as much as for others.

All these are excellent reasons for parents to sign their kids up right away. But we know from experience that a sizable number won’t act quickly, and some won’t get their children vaccinated no matter how much cajoling and counselling is offered.

No one wants to see kids penalized, especially kids who aren’t getting their shots simply because their parents are too obstinate or idle to get them to a vaccine clinic. Certainly, everything possible should be done to make that as easy and available as possible and remove whatever barriers exist to vaccination.

But it’s also true that, in the end, kids need to get their shots. Ontario has accepted that principle since 1982 when it made vaccination against nine diseases (measles, mumps, chickenpox and so on) a condition of attending school.

The COVID vaccine, as we’ve argued before, should be added to that list. After all the talk is done, vaccination is vital for children, and for everyone else. Parents, it’s now up to you.