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Wrcm 101

Ahaz Bin Asif

251723572

Instructor: Farheen Saeed

Should vaccinations be made mandatory for school children

Introduction

COVID-19 and its vaccines have been the centre of attention since 2020. This paper will

focus on the issue of making vaccinations necessary for students to attend school and is it

appropriate to do so. For my paper, I have taken two op-ed articles to argue whether schools

should make vaccinations mandatory or not.

“COVID-19 Vaccines Are Good but Shouldn’t Be Mandated for School Kids.” (Articles A)

written by Dr. Vinay Prasad published on US news dated 28 September 2021. Prasad is a

haematologist-oncologist and associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the

University of California. He claimed that although he supports getting adults vaccinated but

forcing children to get the double dose of vaccinations is not something that should be done.

There are several reasons for the claims he says that according to researches this double dose of

vaccination can cause a problem of “myocarditis" in which the heart muscles become inflamed,

and it mostly occurs after the second dose. So, vaccinating children at such is a risk is not

appropriate. What could be done to decrease the risk of myocarditis is the intervals between the

doses should be increased from 3 weeks to 7 to 8 weeks but schools in LA are resistant to do so.

It should be the decision of the parents whether they want their children to get a single dose or

double dose of the vaccine. Los Angeles strict policy of depriving students of in class education
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if they refuse to get vaccinated is simply not justified as mostly parents take the decision whether

they want their children to get vaccinated or not and no child should suffer due to the decisions

made by his/her parents. He supported his claim with the help of evidence, he gave the example

of Norway where they advised to give gap between the two doses of at least eight to twelve

weeks. He also gave the reference of Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA (Food and Drug

Administration) commissioner and current Pfizer board member who also was in the favour of

giving parents some say in this matter.

“Schools Should Mandate COVID-19 Vaccines for Kids” (Article B) written by Dr Paul

Offit published on US news dated 28 September 2021. Paul believes that the vaccines are

necessary even for the younger ones. He claimed that like other vaccines, vaccine for COVID-19

is also necessary to get to protect our children. The number of children in hospitals are increasing

and it is hard to see a child struggling for his life even though he could have been vaccinated but

was not. Parents are risking the life of their children by not getting them vaccinated. As far

myocarditis is concerned it is much more likely to be caused by COVID-19 than the vaccines. In

addition to this the myocarditis caused by COVID-19 Vaccines also recovers itself overtime.

According to Dr Paul no medical product comes without its side effects but the chance of getting

the effect is quite rare. The reason it should be mandatory to get vaccinated is because you may

transmit the virus to another person, and nobody has the right to put somebody’s life at risk. He

supported his claim with the help of evidence he says that the chances of getting myocarditis

through vaccination is 1 in 45,000 on the other hand the chances of getting myocarditis through

COVID-19 is 1 in 45. Of the 670,000 Americans who died very few had been vaccinated.

According to my point of view the claims made by Dr Paul in article B is more reasonable

than those made by Dr Vinay in article A. As we all know that schools are a place where students
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gather in large numbers so the risk of getting affected by COVID-19 is greater. In addition to that

it can also lead to more variations of COVID-19 to emerge. COVID-19 can cause long term

health problems such as organ damage, MIS-C (multisystem inflammatory syndrome) and even

death. Getting vaccination is necessary so that we do not risk our lives or anyone else’s. It is the

duty of the state to take measures to protect the citizens it could be in any way from imposing

speed limits to making vaccinations mandatory. Also, vaccinations are necessary to end the

lockdown which is necessary for children’s healthy mental and physical growth and

nourishment, besides that the social life of students will also be affected which is extremely

important to build personality and character. Aristotle said, “Without friends no one would

choose to live though he had all other goods." Even though everybody has the right to decide

whether he/she wants to get their child vaccinated or not, but they cannot risk the life of others.

So, parents should be supportive to getting their kids vaccinated as it is best for their kid's safety

as well as others around him.

References

Opinion: Schools Should Mandate Covid-19 Vaccines for Kids ...

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2021-09-28/opinion-schools-should-mandate-
covid-19-vaccines-for-kids.
Opinion: Covid-19 Vaccines Are Good, but Shouldn’t Be ...
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2021-09-28/opinion-covid-19-vaccines-are-
good-but-shouldnt-be-mandated-for-school-kids.
“3 Reasons for Making COVID-19 Vaccination Mandatory for Children.” Google, Google,
https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/3-reasons-for-making-covid-19-
vaccination-mandatory-for-children-160589.
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