Adolescent Consent to COVID-19 Vaccination: The Need for Law Reform

Public Health Reports in 2021: Impact Factor Increase and New Article Collections on Racism and COVID-19

“…This number differs from the number of articles submitted in 2021 (1166), because decisions made in early 2021 may include late 2020 submissions, and conversely, articles submitted late in 2021 may have received their first decision in 2022. The time to first decision was a mean (range) of 24 (1-180) days, and a median (interquartile range [IQR]) of 14 (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24) days. These values represent a 31.4% improvement from the mean time to first decision in 2020 (35 days) and a 34.3% improvement from the maximum time to first decision in 2020 (274 days).…”

From Human Papillomavirus to COVID-19: Adolescent Autonomy and Minor Consent for Vaccines

“…As with other health care, authorizing minors to consent for vaccinations can serve both the public health goal of reducing the risk of transmission of infectious diseases and protecting adolescents’ health. As important as legal and policy guidance, clinical and ethical guidance is needed for these situations in which an adolescent and parent do not agree about vaccination ( Olick, Yang, & Shaw, 2022 ).…”

“…The emergence of parental resistance to vaccines in recent years has contributed to outbreaks of measles, pertussis, and other contagious diseases ( Olick et al, 2022 ). This resistance has been attributed to mistrust of government and health care systems, political affiliation, religious objections, concerns about vaccine safety and, for COVID-19, disagreements about the danger of the infection, and concerns about the speed with which the vaccines were developed and approved ( Troiano & Nardi, 2021 ).…”

“…Public health messaging about the importance of COVID-19 vaccination—and rules requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for participation in school or other activities—led some adolescents to seek vaccination despite parental hesitation ( Hoffman, 2021 ). In the context of the public health emergency, some states and local governments expanded adolescent rights to allow minors to consent specifically to COVID-19 vaccines ( Olick et al, 2022 ; Singer, Kates, & Tolbert, 2021 ).…”

The COVID-19 pandemic in children and young people during 2020-2021: A complex discussion on vaccination

“…An ethical framework to consider when should any school mandates apply suggests that a principled and rather neutral way to think of a vaccine mandate is to consider it as an intersection of competing values while examining the factors that strengthen or weaken each of the values under the circumstances. The framework should take into account the values of autonomy, beneficence, utilitarianism, justice, and non-maleficence because they could all be affected by mandating immunization [ 3 , 14 - 16 ].…”