An injunction granted on the 31st by the Court of Justice of Rio guaranteed the 42-year-old lawyer Sílvia (not her real name), the tranquility she was looking for to immunize her 8-year-old son against Covid-19 – which she did the next day, in the morning. The boy’s father is against vaccination and had sent his ex-wife an extrajudicial notice saying that she could not make the decision unilaterally.
The lawyer knew that, as a mother, she could go to any health center and vaccinate the child, ignoring the ex-husband’s notification. But she wanted to guard against possible retaliation and asked for an injunction.
Child immunization against coronavirus is safe and effective, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and dozens of scientific entities. Although it is not the highest risk group for covid, there is a possibility of aggravation of the disease among the youngest. In addition, the vaccine helps to stop the spread of the virus.
The same dilemma as Sílvia is experienced by teacher Fabiana (not her real name), 36 years old, from São Paulo. The ex-husband warned her that if the mother vaccinates her 7-year-old son, she will use this as an argument in court to obtain unilateral custody of the child. “He claims things he can’t prove to ask for sole custody,” she says. “And now it’s threatening me with this vaccine thing,” she adds.
Fabiana explains to her son the importance of vaccination. But when the boy comes back from his father’s house, he says he doesn’t want to get vaccinated because the immunizer can kill him. Experts have pointed to misinformation as one of the biggest obstacles to the advancement of childhood vaccination against covid in Brazil.
“By the Statute of Children and Adolescents (ECA), vaccination is mandatory, but I don’t know what to do. I feel I need support”, says the teacher, who has already sought out a lawyer for guidance. “I don’t want to force the boy into a situation that will damage his little head a lot; nor risk the loss of joint custody.”
The ECA states, in its article 14, that “the vaccination of children is mandatory in the cases recommended by the health authorities”.
In the law
Ombudsman of the Court of Justice of Rio, Judge Andrea Pachá, who worked for more than 15 years in Family Courts, says that the ECA could not be clearer. “Legally, it’s a non-existent debate; the law says that the vaccine is mandatory, that it is a child’s right,” she says. “Science is positioned; The vaccine is important for the protection of children, and also as an instrument of collective protection, for the end of the pandemic.”
The problem, he says, is the disinformation campaign promoted, many times, by the federal government itself, which ends up creating uncertainties. President Jair Bolsonaro, for example, made statements that call into question the safety of immunizers and said he will not take his 11-year-old daughter for vaccination.
Therefore, the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) recommends that parents seek judicial support. Especially in cases of shared custody, where, by law, all decisions concerning the child must be taken together.
“I don’t recommend vaccinating children by force”, says lawyer Tawnni Barcellos Rabello, from the OAB Family Law Commission. “To be protected by the law and not have a problem later on, the right thing is to put the decision in the hands of a judge. These cases are considered urgent, they do not usually take long,” she says.
denialism
The parents of the two children mentioned in this article presented their ex-wives with similar arguments for not approving their children’s vaccinations. The two claim that the “vaccine is experimental”. They also say that deaths from covid among children are very rare. Both parents, however, were vaccinated.
“This decision (by the ex-husband) is not for the good of the child, it is an ideological issue”, says Fabiana. “He follows what he sees on WhatsApp, he does not seek information, he is very fervent. But he vaccinated himself. There is no basis for what he says,” she comments.
As in the case of Sílvia, who obtained the injunction, the Court has already closed the issue: it will not accept ideological reasons to prevent children from being vaccinated. The National Forum for Protective Justice, which brings together childhood judges from across the country, has already reaffirmed in a national statement the obligation to vaccinate children and adolescents against covid, based on the ECA. The penalties for non-compliance are a fine, warning and even, in extreme cases, loss of custody.
The decision is backed by science. Vaccines against covid-19 are not experimental, contrary to what the children’s parents argue. They were developed by scientists, tested in the laboratory and on animals. Finally, they were applied to humans in three stages – the last one with tens of thousands of people. The procedures followed international scientific protocols.
Subsequently, these immunizers were approved by health agencies in several countries, such as Anvisa, in Brazil, and the FDA, in the United States, among others. After being approved by the health authority, the vaccine is no longer considered experimental.
The incidence of the disease among children is, in fact, lower than among the elderly, as well as the number of deaths. But they are not despicable. According to the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics (SBP), 1,544 children aged 0 to 11 have died of covid in the country since the beginning of the pandemic.
“Covid has killed more children in Brazil than all the diseases on the vaccination schedule combined, such as measles and meningitis”, explains pediatrician Renato Kfouri, president of the Scientific Department of Immunizations at SBP. “Furthermore, we do not vaccinate children just to prevent deaths. We immunize to decrease hospitalizations, avoid suffering, stop the transmission of the virus in society,” he says.
The information is from the newspaper. The State of São Paulo.
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