Since Biontech / Pfizer’s children’s vaccination was approved, many parents have been concerned with the question of whether or not they should have their child or children vaccinated. The Federal Ekif Commission recommends immunization “especially for children with chronic diseases” or those who are “in close contact with endangered adults”.
But not only. “All parents can have their child vaccinated if they wish,” adds the pediatrician and Ekif President Christoph Berger. This clears the way for broad immunization of non-adults.
Nevertheless, it should be a topic of conversation at the kitchen table at home. Parents have to weigh up: where are the benefits, how great the risks, are there any overriding aspects?
Urban Wiesing, director of the Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine at the German University of Tübingen, specializes in such questions. His verdict: “Corona is a highly infectious and dangerous disease and is therefore no longer a private matter.” Parents would face the following questions:
The answer: not very big. Because although the inflammation syndrome Pims or Long Covid has also been diagnosed in many children, the disease runs without symptoms in most of them. Severe cases rarely occur.
Answer: vanishingly small. Since the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine was approved in the US almost two months ago, around eight million children have received an injection. A significantly lower dose is administered. A sore arm is the most common side effect. Long-term effects are not known.
“Considerable,” says medical ethicist Wiesing. «Classes do not have to be quarantined, lessons can continue. The child’s life takes its normal course, social contacts remain intact. ” It is also important that children from poorly educated classes would not be “left behind” in this way.
Considerable. “The virus,” says Wiesing, “causes death, human suffering and economic damage running into billions. If the circulation in the schools is stopped, it will benefit all of us. ” It is precisely because the whole of society benefits from the vaccination that children should be immunized.
However, parents have to accept if their child does not want to be vaccinated. Otherwise they violate his basic rights. Because the vaccination represents an interference with the physical integrity. Pediatricians therefore emphasize that a child should be allowed to weigh “freely and without pressure” about the benefits and risks of a vaccination. The crux of the matter: Hardly a five-year-old child is capable of this.
The Federal Office of Public Health assumes that children between the ages of ten and 15 are able to make judgments. In individual cases, the pediatrician has the last word. Otherwise the parents decide – in the best case – for the benefit of the child.
The socio-political attitude of the parents is playing an increasingly important role. The pandemic has turned the vaccination issue into a struggle for political beliefs in parts of society.
Nikola Biller-Andorno, director of the Institute for Biomedical Ethics and Medical History at the University of Zurich, warns against making the question of immunizing children morally charged. Rather, she advocates a sense of proportion: “We want a strong, democratic society that can also objectively discuss complex problems.” Here, however, there is a lot of catching up to do: The science communication of the federal government and the universities must improve, says the medical ethicist.
And because currently not all medical facts are or are becoming known to everyone, alternative explanations are spreading effortlessly. Hubert Steinke, medical historian at the University of Bern, states that the vaccination issue has been “radicalized”. And fears concrete consequences for child vaccinations that are already widely accepted: “We absolutely have to prevent the immunization against mumps or measles from being questioned by broader sections of society. But that is exactly what could happen now. “
How many parents will decide for or against vaccinating their children will be shown in January. Then the immunization campaign for the youngest vaccination group starts.