Vaccination of young people from 12 years of age for COVID-19 against parents’ wishes

Description

Vaccination for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has been proven safe and effective from the age of 5 years, and is recommended by the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI). COVID‐19 vaccines provide varying degrees of protection against infection and transmission, but all give high levels of protection against severe disease and death from infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) — the virus that causes COVID‐19.

In this article the authors examine the ethical considerations that would allow a vaccine provider to give a COVID‐19 vaccine to a person from 12 years of age (generally referred to as a “young person” in clinical practice) when this request is against the wishes of the child’s parents.

This analysis is intended for young people and for health care and other providers supporting young people, including general practitioners, pharmacists, nurse immunisers, schools, youth workers and residential care workers.

 

Learning Outcomes

• Explain key components of the perspective.
• List main findings.

Authors: John Massie, Georgia A Paxton, Nigel Crawford and Margie H Danchin

Article Type: Perspective