As the Delta variant surges across the country only weeks before the 2021-2022 school year is supposed to begin, a debate has erupted over whether or not the coronavirus vaccine should be available for children over 12 in their schools.
So far, 34% of teens and youth under the age of 20 have been fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry.
The matter came to the forefront this week after the Health Ministry reportedly expressed interest in offering COVID vaccination at schools, like it does with routine vaccines, and Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton and the Teachers Association opposed the move.
“Anyone who can, go out and get vaccinated, but doing so at school is a crime,” Shasha-Biton said Wednesday night in an interview with Channel 12.
In response, former Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov called her statements “disturbing and very dangerous”on Twitter and said that the minister knows very well that no one is going to force children or anyone else to get vaccinated without parental consent.
Just like the Health and Education ministries, medical professionals are also divided on the subject.
“In general, we should enable vaccination everywhere, including in schools,” Prof. Hagai Levine, the former chairman of theAssociation of Public Health Physicians, told The Jerusalem Post.
According to him, vaccinating teens against the virus protects them well from developing what could become serious disease, reduces the risk of spreading coronavirus among the public and increases the chance that the economy will stay open and kids will remain in school.
Last year, Israeli students learned from home more than in any other OECD country.
Levine said offering vaccination in schools is something the country has done for decades and it has played a key role in maintaining high vaccination rates among Israel’s youth. He stressed that the bigger question was not if children should be vaccinated in schools but when and how.
“We are now in July,” Levine said, “we need to get children vaccinated now. Don’t wait for the first of September.”
He noted that due to the Jewish holidays there are very few school days in September and therefore the country should be investing in making vaccination complexes more accessible before the school year starts on late afternoons and Saturdays.
In contrast, Aviv Segev, who directs a psychiatric emergency room at a hospital in the center of the country, said that he believes this specific vaccine should not be administered in schools.
“The coronavirus vaccine is not like regular vaccines,” Segev told the Post. “It is not similar in terms of its certification and there is still a debate as to whether or not it is even required [for children] at all.
“But more importantly,” he continued, “the public climate at present is such that it could lead to significant social pressure on children to get vaccinated against their will.”
To his belief, if children are not getting inoculated it is because their parents don’t want them to. If all of their friends are getting the jab in the school auditorium and they are not, “they could feel pulled between their parents and their peers.”
Aviv described a scenario in which an unvaccinated child could catch coronavirus next year and he would be blamed for it because he did not get the jab, even though some people who did get vaccinated still test positive for the virus.
The issue is “too sensitive” and it should be “disconnected from the education system," he said.
“Our children suffered enough blows in the last year,” Aviv continued. “There is no reason to add another reason for children to feel rejected or humiliated.”
The Association of Public Health Physicians also made a statement: “We are troubled by the conflicted discourse on the sensitive issue of child vaccination against coronavirus in schools... Children’s health also includes protection against other infectious diseases and the creation of a safe and protected environment that allows for stability and emotional support.”