Costa Rica became the first country in the world to mandate children aged five and up to get vaccinated against COVID.
According to the Costa Rican Health Ministry’s announcement posted on November 5, the requirement for children to receive the COVID jab was made “in the best interest of boys, girls, and adolescents.”
The jab will join the list of basic childhood vaccinations already required by law, such as against chickenpox, polio, and HPV, health officials said.
Children older than 15 are allowed to get the vaccine themselves, without them being accompanied by their parent or guardian, but “always with the respective assessment of each case.”
The statement provides that the vaccination of young children will begin in March 2022.
According to the latest official data provided in the announcement, 73 percent of Costa Ricans between 12 and 19 years old have already been jabbed with at least one dose of the COVID shot.
Costa Rican officials also cited the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granting the emergency use authorization (EUA) of the vaccine for children from five to 11 years old on October 29. As The New American reported at the time, the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, which was responsible for enforcing the jab based on its risk-benefit analysis, has found that children are at minimal risk of getting or falling ill with COVID or dying from it while admitting that the mid- and long-term side effects were yet to be studied. “We’re never going to learn about how safe the vaccine is until we start giving it,” said Dr. Eric Ruben during the hearings.
So given the risks of adverse reactions already associated with the vaccines, when the Costa Rican Health Ministry ordered, in the same paragraph, that “the parents or legal guardians are legally responsible for ensuring that the mandatory vaccination of minors is carried out in a timely manner” while the nation’s top health and education agencies “must ensure the guarantee of the right to health and life of children and adolescents,” it seemingly contradicts itself.
As reported by local media, in late October, the country signed a deal with Pfizer for the purchase of 3.5 million doses of its COVID shot, 1.5 million of which will be used in children and the remaining two million in people who require the third dose, including first responders, the elderly population, and immunocompromised individuals.
Starting December 1, 2021, Costa Rica will require proof of COVID vaccination to attend most public venues, such as restaurants, bars, casinos, commercial centers, museums, gyms, hotels, adventure tourism sites, theaters, houses of worship, and sporting events. Essential services such as grocery stores, supermarkets, and pharmacies are not included in the nationwide vaccine mandate. Vaccination status will be verified via a digital form or mobile-phone application that will be made available later in November, and also may be presented in print.
According to the official numbers, about 82 percent of all Costa Ricans age 12 and older have received at least one vaccine dose of Pfizer or AstraZeneca administered in the country.
The American legacy media have put a positive twist on the vax mandate for Costa Rican children. The Washington Post, which was one of the first to report on the news, quoted Arachu Castro, a professor at Tulane University who specializes in public health in Latin America, who claimed the vaccine mandates in Costa Rica are seen in a positive light. Castro claimed that unlike in the United States, “where the vaccine mandates have faced political resistance,” Costa Rica regards such “access to public health care as a national pride.”
Some similar moves toward vaccine mandates for children have already been made in America.
On October 1, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the COVID vaccines will be added to the list of vaccinations required to attend school in-person pending full approval from the FDA for middle- and high-schoolers, making California the first state in the nation to introduce such a measure.
Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest in the nation, is already requiring children ages 12 to 15 to get a COVID shot to participate in in-person classes despite the Pfizer jab still not being fully approved for that age group.
On November 2, the city of San Francisco said that the city-wide mandate that requires all eligible individuals to show they are vaccinated against COVID for a wide array of indoor activities will also apply to kids as young as five in the near future, but “no sooner that eight weeks after the vaccine is available to kids.”
Meanwhile, some world-renowned medical and scientific experts are warning parents against vaccinating their young children and adolescents against COVID.
On November 9, top medical professionals gathered at the Florida Summit on COVID, a part of the Global COVID Summit, to discuss the latest data on vaccine safety in children, and concluded that the risks associated with the vaccines do not outweigh the benefits, since the said cohort has a “statistical zero” chance of getting sick or dying from COVID and even transmitting it to others, as reported by The New American.
