With the age minimum of 16, teenagers are now being able to get the vaccine. Many questions are being wondered on how teenagers feel about the vaccine. Children and teenagers tend to have mild cases of the COVID–19 Virus. Although many have not gotten serious conditions from the COVID–19 virus, getting vaccinated could help keep teen cases down and even maybe prevent from future complications. An effort is underway in Franklin County, Ohio which has helped prioritize high schoolers to get the two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which is the only one currently authorized for those as young as 16.  

The vaccine that teenagers can acquire is from Pfizer. The Pfizer vaccine has seemed to be safe for children at the ages of 16 and older. As it is super rare for children to get seriously ill from COVID-19 with underlying and past hospitalized conditions. This is mostly because teenagers who acquire the vaccine would be less likely to acquire the virus, and in addition, it would allow parents and kids to go back to everyday activities. 

Dr. Sara Bode, a primary caretaker physician and medical director of Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Care Connection School-Based Health and Mobile Clinics, states, “It’s really important to think about the fact that teens don’t live by themselves. If we are trying to target the whole community to get the rate of COVID-19 down, so that we are reducing that transmissibility, we cannot ignore this young population.“ 

Many students have stated that they saw obtaining the vaccine as a big step towards getting back to their normal lives. It would allow many families and friends to see each other as they had done pre–COVID-19. Not only would this allow many teens to go back to their normal lives as many of them have gone through a tough time in their young lives, but many could see this to allow the world to come together as well, meaning the protests that had seemed to separate the USA this past summer. 

COVID–19 has kept the world in lockdown for many months now and a lot of people, mainly teenagers, are patiently waiting to not have to deal with the requirements of the masks. Sophomore Ryan Sargent states that “As the vaccine finally comes out, I am anxious to finally get mine so that I can do activities such as traveling so I can visit my family, getting the vaccine would allow me to do this as I haven’t seen them in a really long time.”