Since March 2020, the “true” beginning of the  COVID-19  pandemic, many things have been up in the air in a vast amount of different ways states and counties have dealt with this serious issue. The situation that has now arisen is how contradictory these plans may be. For a while, the right to consent to the COVID-19 test or vaccine has varied county by county. Currently in Philadelphia, minors have the right to consent to have the covid vaccine which is great because it gives minors the right to choose whether or not they want to have the vaccine or not. 

This issue – which could seem not as important to others – in other places they don’t give minors the option or opportunities to do the same and have to get a parent or guardian’s permission, this leaves the minor’s without legal rights for their own medical well-being. 

The heavy misconceptions around vaccinations has caused many people, including parents and guardians, to completely avoid the COVID-19 situation altogether. These laws can become very controversial since the right to medical autonomy is being altered, many teens may have contrasting opinions to their elders and the vaccine has now become a requirement to do many things in these times as well as to even being able to eat out. So the question is, is it fair that teens are not allowed to make the conscious decision as far as their health to take it or not, because by not taking it there are many risks and by taking it there are risks as well.

Ms.Way, FLC medical teacher, shared her perspective on the topic in shorter words was that many teenagers are very intelligent and there have been many cases where kids do become medically emancipated, for example if a teen becomes pregnant they have that right to choose what their next step may be. But teens are smart enough to do their own research and have that ability to choose whether or not to get the vaccine regardless of their parents opinion.

Continuing on this idea of whether or not the vaccine can be dangerous, let’s talk about the statistics behind these ideas. A study conducted in 2021 people who have been fully vaccinated have had a lesser chance of getting Covid -19, out of 100,000 people fully vaccinated only 125.4 people have caught COVID and only 4.9 of them were hospitalized this is vs 10,000 people who weren’t vaccinated 369.2 cases were found and 18.2 were hospitalized according to Statista.com.

As far as a day-to-day basis of not being able to interact with other people and go out to do things can be daunting on mental health since, most likely, people would be stuck inside doing nothing and of course, taking it has its risks as well and it’s not like covid cannot still be contracted but the chances are proven to be reduced. 

The bigger question is while it may be true it is typically required to have parental consent when it comes to medical decisions for a child who hasn’t reached the legal age of 18, is it fair to push that idea when the magnitude of the situation is always escalating and de-escalating randomly? The reality of this is if people don’t get the vaccine and they contract COVID-19 it can continue to spread and that’s why COVID-19 guidelines and mandates have been so strict. By referring to the information from statistia.com, people who have gotten it have had way lesser chances of contracting covid and that’s just by the amount who had gotten studied, so on a larger scale the numbers are theoretically  similar.

In conclusion, the idea that the covid vaccine is dangerous isn’t necessarily true. Many people would normally bring up the fact that yes the statistics are true but it still has covid in the vaccine. Well, medically speaking, that’s what a vaccine is. If you search up the correct definition of vaccine the definition states the following “A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins.” which means all vaccines have an agent that is or resembles said disease  so your body can grow accustomed and later on learn to fight against it. So the truth is, it’s just like any other vaccine, while it may be true it was in the testing stage in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has progressed and been proven to be just as effective as any other vaccine you’ll typically receive. The decision to take the vaccine is one hundred percent up to that person.