IN the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has worked with countries on public health measures to slow and stop the spread of the virus.
WHO recommends that initial vaccination should prioritise groups at highest risk of exposure to infection in each country, including health workers, older persons and those with other health issues.
Once COVID-19 vaccines become more available, countries can expand to vaccinate other priority groups and the general population.
It is important for everyone to aware that the vaccines authorised so far by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are up to 95% effective for preventing symptomatic illness from COVID-19.
This is a very high level of protection and moreover are recommended by the WHO.
Malaysia has given conditional approval for young people aged between 12 to 18 to be jabbed with the Pfizer vaccines.
The National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) for adolescents officially kicked on 20 September 2021 targeting the involvement of 3.2 million teenagers aged 12 to 18.
Over 400,000 teenagers had been infected with COVID-19 this year, where a drastic spike from the 12,000 such cases recorded in 2020.
The number of deaths among teenagers has also soared with 67 recorded this year, compared to only six last year.
However, Malaysia is among the countries with the fastest COVID-19 vaccination roll-outs for adolescents as said by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar.
Despite of this programme, majority parents doubt and refuse their child to be vaccinated, and this can perhaps be attributed to the fact that majority of parents have limited understanding in regard to the function of vaccine and immunisation schedule.
At that point, there are still parents who were not worried about their children’s health status and felt there is no necessity to vaccinate their children as the level of contracting the disease is low.
Eventually, parents seem to value internal and external barriers more than the benefits of vaccination.
Internal barriers include self-principle, believe in alternative practices and having trust issue on health staff while external barriers include side effects and ingredients of the vaccine as well as influence of the media.
From the perspective of law in Jurisprudence, we may take a look in the view of legal positivism.
The word “positivism” itself derives from the Latin root positus, which means to posit or firmly affix the existence of something.
According to legal positivism philosopher John Austin, “the existence of the law is one thing its merit or demerit is another. Whether it be or be not is one enquiry; whether it be or be not conformable to an assumed standard, is another enquiry.”
Parents should consider allowing their child to be vaccinated as per the new normal as vaccination is the requirement these days in order for citizens to live a normal life – this is evident in how only fully-vaccinated individuals are allowed to dine in at restaurants and have access to all public facilities.
“If you cannot be vaccinated, that’s fine. We will give you a MySejahtera digital exemption.” – these are the words of Khairy Jamaluddin back in Oct 2021.
However, adolescents and teenagers below the age of 18 are not able to go about their lives as usual without a MySejahtera digital certificate or a special exemption certificate.
They will be unable to participate in tuition classes, they are not able to have meals with their families and friends at restaurants, and they will not be able to shop for their daily needs.
At this point, it should be noted that children who are vaccinated are less likely to get infected with the coronavirus and are more likely to be able to continue participating in school with less disruptions.
Austrian jurist Hans Kelsen maintained that law is a normative domain and must understood as such and so the philosophy of law must explain the fact that law imposes obligations on its subjects.
As claimed by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), unvaccinated people are five times more likely to get infected, 10 times more likely to be hospitalised and 10 times more likely to die from COVID-19.
That means that getting a COVID-19 vaccine is still one of the best things we can do for our child. More than just helping things get back to normal, it will set them up for even better health benefits in the future.
In closing, we should realise that COVID-19 is a preventable disease and for life to get back to normal and to make the world safe from COVID-19, we need everyone to be vaccinated, including children. – Nov 18, 2021
Sik Ching Mei is a third-year law student at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Dr Nabeel Mahdi Althabhawi teaches law at the same university.
The views expressed are solely of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
