At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, many could not wait to get their hands on a miracle, an effective treatment or at least a vaccine.
A couple of months after, many prayers were answered as pharmaceutical companies began to develop promising vaccines.
One would think that the vaccines would be widely accepted. It turned out that there are more skeptics about the vaccines than there are fans. The controversy surrounding taking the shots have been endless globally.
One of these rather unavoidable controversies is whether or not the vaccines are safe or even necessary for children.
Before the approval of the vaccines for younger children, some researchers had claimed that children’s immune systems have mechanisms that could help them fight off the Covid-19 infection naturally.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/unraveling-the-mystery-of-why-children-are-better-protected-from-covid-than-adults/?amp=true
It is then not very surprising that parents were heavily skeptical about extending the vaccine mandate to children.
A Twitter post by the United States Department of Health and Human Services on vaccine for children attracted mostly negative reactions. Most parents seemed rather convinced that it was unnecessary to make children take the jab.
It is also not much of a surprise that it appeared as though comments questioning the safety of the vaccines were usually screened by the social media companies or taken down in some instances.
Search results asking questions about vaccines and their safety, especially with regards to children, are so filled with positives that it almost seems forced.
Several online articles keep reiterating the safety of the vaccines and UNICEF asserted on their website that children were more likely to be harmed by the virus than the vaccine.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/covid-19-vaccines-for-kids/art-20513332
https://www.unicef.org/parenting/health/parents-frequently-asked-questions-vaccines
But many are not buying this because they believe that big pharmaceutical companies can exert their influence to make anything seem safe, if they wanted to. They’ve seen them do it time and again.
So the question remains, what exactly is true? Should parents drop their concerns in favor of what they’re told? Or should they trust in the natural process and shield their children from whatever perceived harm could come from a vaccine?