A lawyer from Amsterdam is still unsure whether she will have her young children vaccinated. She wants NRC best to tell her about her considerations. But: “Just consult with my husband”. Moments later she emails: “He doesn’t like it.” An elderly care worker from Helmond has an 11-year-old daughter who is looking forward to her vaccination – her brother and sister already have one. The mother likes to contribute to an article. “Just discuss it at home.” A few minutes later she calls back: “My husband definitely does not want to be in the newspaper with this.”
The reluctance of parents to talk about the vaccination of children is symptomatic of the great division that ‘the children’s vaccine’ is causing in the Netherlands. According to the RIVM (last round of measurements at the end of November) 47 percent of Dutch parents are certainly or probably willing to vaccinate their child. In other words, the vaccination of children divides parents into two camps.
On November 25, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the corona vaccine for ages 5 to 11 years. On December 10, the cabinet decided, in accordance with a recommendation from the Health Council, to make the vaccine available to children. More than a month and a half later, from January 18, the first parents receive invitation letters. And the injection should start on January 24, about six weeks after the kick-off in other European countries.
It can be a difficult choice for parents. Pediatricians seem to disagree publicly. At the beginning of December, AJN, an association for Dutch pediatricians, was in favor of making the vaccine available to parents of five to twelve year olds. According to the association this would lead to ‘stress reduction in the family’, so that it has ‘a positive influence on well-being and health’.
Another doctors’ association, the Dutch Association for Pediatrics, was against vaccinating healthy children at the beginning of December. Chairman and OMT member Károly Illy stated in the Dutch daily newspaper that it had to be demonstrated that children themselves would benefit from the jab. “For healthy children under the age of twelve, it has no personal added value to be vaccinated.”
Also read: This interview with pediatrician Patricia Bruijning: ‘It is too early to vaccinate children.
Last Wednesday, Illy . stated in the AD incidentally, it is best for parents to have their children vaccinated if they “want to minimize the chance of school closures”. And that the risk of serious side effects of the vaccine is even smaller and even rarer for children than the risk of serious illness due to a corona infection.
What complicates the choice is that parents now do not decide for themselves, but for their child. Children’s Ombudsman Margrite Kalverboer advised parents to involving children from the age of eight in the choice. “They are already in a good position to express their views” and have “the right to be involved.”
While schools are open again, and the – presumably less sickening – Omikron variant breaks infection records every week, the costs and benefits of childhood vaccination are hotly debated on social media. Comments such as: ‘Keep away from our children’ can be found below each post.
Also read: Vaccinating young children: what are the risks?
This social division and that harsh rhetoric are reasons for many parents not to express their opinion about vaccination in public. Dozens of parents who approached NRC via primary school teachers, pediatricians, acquaintances and social media (for and against), were afraid to express their choice. Doubters also fear reactions and threats. One parent said he found the debate “too polarized” to contribute to it safely.
Steven van den Bergh, father of two children, also had his reservations. He doesn’t want his kids to get negative comments online or at school because he doesn’t want them vaccinated. “My opinion differs from that of former minister Hugo de Jonge. I don’t want them to suffer from that.”
‘I want corona to rot now’
Who Patricia Treffers, mother of Dennis (7)
True Haarlem
Profession Incapacitated
“Why am I vaccinated?” CNN is on in the narrow Haarlem ground floor apartment. Patricia Treffers is sitting on the couch, her seven-year-old son Dennis is running around and showing his toy swords. “Firstly”, Treffers begins: “My mother is terminally ill, the last phase of [longziekte] COPD, and I’m afraid we’re infecting her. Second, my health is not optimal. Maybe I have early-stage COPD myself – I don’t want to know – and I suffer from chronic pain. I’ve been down for two months with the flu. Third: I also want corona to rot now.”
Patricia doesn’t see vaccination as ‘silver bullet‘: Vaccinating children will not completely stop the virus either. “But vaccination does inhibit the virus, and it prevents serious diseases. It’s not just about vaccines either. There are self-tests, masks; we have to make use of that. If everyone does that, I believe it will end.”
Patricia is considering going abroad with Dennis to get his second shot earlier. For healthy children, there are eight weeks between the first and second injection. For children at extra risk: four weeks. “Eight weeks is too long for me. In the meantime, he is in a packed class where there is regular corona. What if he infects me, or my mother? He would never forgive himself.” Dennis hits the table: “Then the life we know is completely gone!”
Patricia continues: “Millions of children have been vaccinated in the US, Israel… Show me where those serious complications are. They’re talking about myocarditis [ontsteking van de hartspier]. Suppose he gets that: it is treatable. And the chance of myocarditis from Covid is higher.
The vaccination cannot come soon enough for Dennis: “Sure! I’d rather have a shot that I find very annoying than corona, or lung Covid, or die. If everyone gets the vaccination, this would be over much faster. And that’s exactly what I want!” Patricia claps her hands: “Ladies and gentlemen, Jaap van Dissel has been replaced!”
‘The strategy: ‘We poke ourselves out’ has not worked”
Who Steven van den Bergh, father of Luc (10) and Beau (6)
True Roosendaal
Profession Product manager ventilation
“I am pro-vaccination but against coercion,” says Steven van den Bergh from behind his laptop screen, which is filled with statistics and interviews with doctors, such as internist Marcel Levi and professor of intensive care Armand Girbes. “My children have all vaccinations from the National Immunization Programme. We have been using these vaccinations for ten years and they protect against serious diseases such as polio. That choice was a no-brainer. But for now I do not want to vaccinate my children against corona.”
He has been vaccinated himself: “Dancing with Janssen. I succumbed to peer pressure.” He makes a different choice for his children. “It is rare for children to end up in hospital with corona, and when it does happen, it is mainly children with underlying conditions: asthma, obesity, Down syndrome. My children are healthy, so the chance that they will become seriously ill is very small.”
Van den Bergh is also not afraid of myocarditis, the inflammation of the heart muscle that occurs in some children after a corona infection. “That is also rare, and also a side effect of the vaccine. I think the vaccines are safe, but who can assure me that there are no unknown long-term side effects?”
Van den Bergh finds the argument ‘Do it for society’ insufficiently substantiated. “You can still pass on the virus. And it remains to be seen how much less contagious children are after vaccination, especially with new variants. The strategy: ‘We punch ourselves out’ has not worked.”
It’s time to look at alternative measures, he says. “Scaling up care. Promote a healthier lifestyle – 78 percent of patients in hospital are overweight. And improve air quality. It is bad in many primary schools, while we know that corona spreads through aerosols!”
Does Van den Bergh let his children participate in the decision-making process? “I don’t want to burden them too much with corona, but I did ask my oldest if he would like the vaccine. He doesn’t want that. He is a bit afraid of the jab and said: I am young, exercise a lot, and eat a lot of tomatoes!”
‘I think children can make wise decisions on their own’
Who Jurjen (51) and Renske (33) Veenstra, parents of Susanna (9) and Karst (7)
True Nieijl, Groningen
Profession Family man and newspaper deliverer, secretary at part of the tax authorities
Every morning Jurjen Veenstra (51) cycles with his children Susanna (9) and Karst (7) to Grijpskerk, a village further away. There they are in primary school in grades seven and four. In the afternoon they cycle back. In those thirty minutes that they are on the road one day, they discuss everything. What they will do at school that day, what they will watch on Facebook and YouTube, how they can recognize reliable information. And: whether they will be vaccinated.
Jurjen and his wife Renske believe that they can make their own decision. Karst already knows, he says – “I want it”. “Because I think it’s better for the other people around me, for example people who are already quite old and are being attacked harder by corona.” His sister Susanna is not out yet. She finds it ‘annoying’, ‘but it is better, I think. Vaccination means that corona spreads less.” In fact, she is mainly afraid of the jab.
“I think that children are quite capable of making sensible decisions on their own,” says Jurjen. He and Renske would in principle also be in favor of children’s suffrage. At the beginning of November, the whole family went to the Climate March in Amsterdam because Karst had suggested it. “I do believe that there is a better choice – we have also been vaccinated, the children have seen that – but we let them come out on their own. If Susanna had made a different choice than we did, I would have talked to her about it longer, but in the end it would be her decision. ”
Fine, Susanna thinks. “If I really didn’t want to, but my parents told me to, I would have found that annoying.”
“I have a dilemma,” Karst tells the rest. “Would you rather be attacked by a swarm of bees, or by a big bear?” Rather a swarm of bees, it sounds – greater chance of survival. He thinks himself too. Susanna: “I thought you were going to say, would you rather be attacked by a swarm of bees or have a vaccine?” Would she choose the bees? No, really not, rather a shot.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 15 January 2022
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 15, 2022
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