Vaccination and kids

I’ve got a 14 year old daughter who we currently haven’t gave consent for her Covid vaccination, me and my wife have been double jabbed and both have dates for the booster but I’m feeling uneasy about having our daughter jabbed, I don’t buy into all these conspiracies and I’m not into all these online rants about it all but a genuinely feel a bit uneasy about having her jabbed........a supppse my question is;
Am I being daft to not let her have it done?
Is there anyone else In a similar position?
Do I let her make that call?

 

My son turns 12 in January and feel very similar. Had 2 jabs going for my booster this week but I just feel very uneasy about deciding to give it to my son. I think it might be because I have to decide on his behalf.

 

Has she had all of the other recommended inoculations during her life?
Has she been inoculated for foreign travel before?
If so in my opinion the same applies. The vaccine will give her antibodies to fight it, schools are germ hotbeds at the best of times.
It's personal choice but I'm a pro vaccine person.

 

At 14 she can make her own mind up

 

Yes, she’s had all her jabs as a baby, when you have kids you take inoculation as par for course and don’t bat an eye lid and a suppose this unfortunately is no different. A think next year will see the age reduced for kids needing to be jabbed to be able to enter other countries too which will force a lot of people’s hands.......as a dad you do everything in your power to look after them and it’d break my heart if anything happened to her

 

My nephew is 13. His mum is a GP and was happy for him to have it. That's a pretty good indicator for me as to whether it's a good idea.

 

I viewed it as any other vaccination. I'm all too aware of the harm caused by the wrong association between autism and the MMR peddled by Andrew Wakefield and jumped on by the media. At 14 she's competent to make her own decisions though, although I talked it through with my son and to him it made as much sense to have it as not so he did.

 

You decide things on their behalf all the time as a parent, and you protect them as much as you can. To me, vaccination programmes offer protection.

 

My daughter is 13. She didn't want to have it at school because she doesn't like needles but she said she wanted to be vaccinated so I booked her in and drover her to Honley to get it done where no one could laugh at her if she freaked out. She had it a month or so ago now and didn't even get any of the day after effects I did when I had mine.

I'd let a teenager make their decision and then try to understand it. If you think some guidance is then needed you can offer some, but a parent refusing to let them have a medical procedure they want seems a bit over the top. If the child was younger I think you might have to use your own judgement, but at 14 they're generally intelligent enough to make an informed decision.

 

True, I will have to do so research on it. I know children are incredibly low risk from Covid and I know that vaccine reaction is incredibly rare too.

 

Yeah a think it’s probably wise to let her have the say so on it really.........what a mess life's turned into these last few years

 

I've said before that I am a pro-vaccine as you come. However, the JCVI were "very clear" (I'll pretend I'm a politician) in their guidance that there was minimal clinical benefit to vaccination of children.

That's my threshold, there has to be a clear clinical benefit.

The advice to vaccinate kids appears centred on missing less time from school.

According to the graphs that were put around at the time two doses (as now suggested) would save 0.16 ICU admissions per million doses and cause 12-34 cases of myocarditis.

I can't reconcile that with a decision to vaccinate him.

Kids don't get seriously ill from it.

My oldest wanted it, I showed him the figures and he decided then that he didn't want it. I'm completely comfortable with that.

There is a family history of cardiomyopathy on the male side which also featured in my thought process.

 

Several European nations started vaccinating their children from age 5 last week - this is mass scale and I haven't personally heard of any issues so far - my kids are grown up now so I no longer have to make these decisions and completely understand your dilemma - me personally if my kids were 14 again I would give consent as the risks on paper look to be miniscule - only my opinion mind and your decision at the end of the day.

 

A think that’s probably formed part of my thinking in that kids don’t tend to be ill from Covid and there’s always a risk that there could be a complication, it’s the risk vs reward scenario really

 

My 13 year old had her Covid vaccination (2 months after she'd had Covid).

Children don't tend to get particularly poorly when catching Covid (nor do that many adults), but they can still carry and pass it on to others.

 

True but the vaccine dosent stop people still spreading it too

 

That's not quite true, because vaccinated people tend to be infectious for a shorter time because the window in which they can pass it on is limited by the boosted immune response.

 

Purely based on that, what is the risk to her from Covid and what is the risk to her from the vaccine? It appears that a risk from either is minuscule but the vaccine is supposed to be marginally better. Whilst marginal may seem pointless, for me, going for the tiny bit more dangerous option seems like a strange choice, especially when there are other benefits such as being less likely to pass it on. People who are unsure about something tend to lean towards inaction and do nothing (in this case not having the vaccine) but inaction is still a choice with consequences. What does your daughter think about it?

 

No but it reduces the chances by reducing the time you're contagious and reducing the viral load (making you less contagious while you are contagious).

Ultimately you'll do what you think is best for your daughter. What anybody else thinks is fluff.