What are Teenagers Going to Do With No Vaccine?!

Reham Sheikh, Staff writer

The Food and Drug Administration has finally approved two COVID-19 vaccines, which will help many health workers or high-risk individuals to receive vaccinations soon. However, within this, families are now waiting for their turn which may not be available to them until the spring/summer of 2021. Conversely, people who are under 16 will not be able to receive the Pfizer vaccine, and kids under 18 will not be able to take People who are under 16 will not be able to receive the Pfizer vaccine due to the fact that it is currently authorized for individuals 16 and up. Children under 18 will also not be able to receive the Moderna vaccine because as of now it is only authorized for people 18 and up.  Notwithstanding, both companies started clinical examinations for young kids. Still, young adults and children are not as high risk as others, so for that reason teens most likely will be in the final group to receive the vaccine. At the end of 2021, we are hoping to have a vaccine for kids ranging from ages 0 to16. The reason why young adults are not yet approved to take the vaccine is that the children’s immune systems are different from older peoples and systems may respond to the vaccine differently. The research needs to be repeated with children 0-16 in order for the vaccine to be approved for their age group. Both the companies; Pfizer and Moderna, started their new vaccine trials for age 12 and up, and the data so far only needs to be approved by The Food and Drug Administration. Many people have doubts about getting vaccinated so I interviewed a health worker, Dareen Aloudeh who took the vaccine and asked her how she feels now. She said “since I took the vaccine nothing changed in my body. In the first shot I didn’t face any fever or tiredness however in the second one I only faced a little headache but it went so fast less than a day”.For now, people who are under 16 are not at the largest risk, and with wearing masks plus being surrounded by people who already got vaccinated they will be healthy and happy