After the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is approved for ages 12-17, all teenagers can be vaccinated – but some teenagers who wish to get vaccinated cannot because they lack parental consent. In one current surveyconducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, only 3 out of 10 parents surveyed said they had their children vaccinated immediately. In the same survey, almost one in four parents said they definitely wouldn’t get their child vaccinated. Still other parents wanted to wait and see. So what does a teenager do when they want to get vaccinated?
“This is not new, and yet it feels very new because of the urgency and what is at stake for children,” said Cora Breuner, Seattle pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. “As paediatricians, we are very aware of how difficult it is for some of our patients to get vaccinated when their parents are not on board.”
For many teenagers, as well as adults, vaccination is seen as a way to return to a more normal life and protect loved ones. But if a teen wants to be vaccinated but their parents don’t agree, what are the options?
Although their choices are limited, there are strategies teenagers can try, from trying to educate their parents about the importance of vaccination to researching vaccine self-consent laws in their states.
VaxTeen.org wants to help teenagers sell the vaccine to their parents
After discovering that many of her peers were ignorant of their rights when it came to vaccine self-consent – and the challenges teenagers face when parents disagree – LA teenager Kelly Danielpour launched the website VaxTeen.org. As Danielpour told him New York Times“We automatically speak of parents, not teenagers, who have opinions on this matter.”
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VaxTeen provides information for teens about vaccines, including resources on how to educate their parents about why they are important. The information includes CDC vaccine guides, suggestions on how to talk to parents about vaccination, and information about the various myths and misconceptions about vaccine safety.
When teenagers try to talk to their vaccine-reluctant parents, Breuner advises being open and willing to understand their parents’ fears and concerns, but continue to emphasize the fact that the vaccines are safe. “The data is really clear,” she said.
It is important to understand that a parent’s fear is based on their desire to do what is best for their child. Breuner advises you to deal openly with your questions or concerns. “Families come up with tons and tons of questions that are legitimate questions,” she said. Given these questions, she tries to unpack her worries as best she can in order to address her basic fears.
For teenagers with hesitant parents, she recommends finding a resource, be it their pediatrician or a community leader, that their parents trust, as calling an authority is often the most effective way to get them to rethink. “Help them find a reason [get] vaccinated their children, ”said Breuner.
Research vaccine self-consent laws
In addition to providing educational materials, VaxTeen also provides detailed, state-level information on vaccine self-consent laws. In some states, teenagers may be able to give their own consent to the vaccine while in others they either have to convince their parents or wait.
Parental consent rules for minors who are vaccinated vary from state to state. Parental consent is required for all vaccines in young children. When they reach their teenage years, they become Laws vary. Only five states allow exceptions for children between the ages of 12 and 15: In North Carolina, teenagers can get vaccinated without parental consent; in Tennessee and Alabama, they can do so at the age of 14; in Oregon, the age of consent is 15 years; while Iowa lets the healthcare provider decide. Once teenagers turn 16, more states have additional exceptions, but the specifics vary widely.
Teenagers who want to get vaccinated but do not have parental consent find themselves in a difficult position – they would be forgiven for feeling that they have no power over their bodies and their future. Difficult as this situation is, they still have some limited options, whether it be to allay their parents’ fears or to give their own consent – provided that this is legal where they live.
