Willem van Aardt
SARS-CoV-2 infects children far less frequently than adults and when infected, children experience no or benign symptoms. Children further do not transmit the virus in any meaningful way. Despite these facts, many public health authorities recommend that all children above the age of 12 get vaccinated to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2. As a result, many schools, colleges, and universities require proof of vaccination for students to attend class, essentially coercing students to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The rationale presented by public health officials for recommending COVID-19 vaccination for children is threefold: a) To keep children from contracting COVID-19 and becoming seriously ill. b) To stop children from transmitting SARS-COV-2 to each other, teachers, parents and grandparents. c) It is needed to reach herd immunity. Consequently, this research investigates whether these hypotheses are correct and supported by the science and empirical data. If the principal points of departure are flawed, it follows that a policy to vaccinate children against COVID-19 would be irrational. The four main biomedical ethical principles, that is beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice, are defined and explained to provide a universal, moral analytical framework that are that can aid public health policymakers in making morally and ethically sound decisions. The four main ethical principles are then applied to the policy and practice to coerce young people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.