For the past two years, Covid has been the main issue affecting the whole planet. Solutions have been made to try and stop or reduce covid such as vaccines.  The 2 most known vaccines are Pfizer and Moderna.  Pfizer is for the younger people from 12+ and Moderna is for 18+.  These vaccines are supposed to help prevent the patient from getting Covid 19.  However, as of this fall, kids under 12 can’t get the vaccine meaning they are at greater risk of catching the virus. 

In the beginning of these vaccines, there were problems.  After getting the vaccine many people reported getting very sick from it for a couple of days.  Some symptoms were body aches, chills, swelling in the area of the shot, etc.  In some rare cases, issues with the heart would occur after getting the vaccine.  This issue would usually occur in older people or younger teens.  For the Johnson and Johnson shot,  there were cases of blood clots.  Most of the reports were from women under 50.  As a result, the FDA put a pause on this vaccine to stop any more damage, but that pause has since been lifted.  For kids, the Vaccine would be Pfizer.  This vaccine is between the ages of 12 and 17.  This vaccine is said to not be as strong as Moderna since it is meant for kids which have a different immune system than most adults.  With this, the side effects are not as bad; however, there are still cases of swelling/ pain and also tiredness and headaches. 

The vaccine for kids 5-11 has now been approved and is currently being shipped out to be in use. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) vote that signed off on the vaccine being used on little kids was 14-0.  The child would receive 10-microgram doses that are 21 days apart, similar to the Pfizer vaccine.  The dosage is ⅓ of the adult dosage. The dose they receive would be based on their age and the time they get the shot.  Even now that there is a vaccine for 5-11, Pfizer is already planning to make a vaccine for children under 5.  From this, their goal is clear that they want a vaccine to be available to everyone no matter the age in order to stop the spread of Covid any further.  

Now that a smaller demographic is being targeted, the population of vaccinated people is bound to increase.  With this, the topic of the vaccine being mandatory comes in.  Certain places already mandate a vaccine for their employees.  So far schools have not made it mandatory for students to be vaccinated.  The argument of if schools should mandate or not is becoming very controversial.  In summary, the argument is that the vaccine should be mandatory since it’s safe and prevents Covid from being spread.  Since Covid can easily be spread through a school full of kids and adults the vaccine seems like a smart idea to fix this issue.  The problem with this is that some kids may not react to the shot in a positive way, students might be out of school if not vaccinated, etc. 

The spread of vaccines (especially Covid related) is increasing rapidly and many people are on board.  Stopping Covid from being any more dangerous is a huge goal, and one sure way we know how to achieve this goal or get closer to it is to get vaccinated.  Sooner or later, anyone would be able to get vaccinated to be safe from this ongoing pandemic.