Covid Is a Greater Risk to Young People Than the Vaccines

Dr. Faust and Dr. Mayes are emergency medicine physicians at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Gounder is an epidemiologist who served on the Biden transition Covid advisory board.

But in part because of that lower toll, some parents are on the fence about getting their school-age children and teens vaccinated. As reports of side effects from vaccination emerge, the risks from vaccines can seem greater than those posed by the coronavirus. However, it still makes sense — indeed, it is crucial — to vaccinate young people against Covid-19. This remains true even when we consider the worst possible outcomes from vaccination.

For example, an advisory committee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention met on June 23 to review data showing a likely association between a rare condition called myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, and Covid-19 vaccination with mRNA vaccines among teenagers and young adults in the United States. They found that more than 1,200 cases have been reported, and that they are mostly mild. The C.D.C. continues to recommend all people age 12 and older get vaccinated. (Children younger than 12 may be able to get vaccinated as early as this fall.)

That’s the right call. To understand why, it’s important to realize the choice is not “vaccinate or do nothing.” It’s “vaccinate or eventually contract the coronavirus,” and the risks that come with it. Most experts now believe that the virus is destined to be endemic, meaning it will circulate among humans indefinitely.

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