one way a healthcare worker could assess a youth’s capacity is by testing their knowledge of the vaccine and its effects: “what does the vaccine do, what are the potential side effects, what do you see as the benefits and risks of getting the vaccine,” menna-dack listed as some examples of questions youth could be asked about the vaccine.
“we also would want to be ensuring that the young person knows where to get help,”, she said, should they experience any mild or severe side effects from the dose.
the doctor-patient conversation, she says, is not that much different from that a healthcare worker assessing whether an adult is sufficiently knowledgeable about the vaccine.
teens, huang said, also tend to ask very similar questions about the vaccine as adults. “how protected am i? is it safe? will this affect my fertility,” huang listed as some of the most common questions he has heard from adolescent patients, similar to those voiced by adults.
some adolescent women, dr. alene toulany, an adolescent medicine specialist at sickkids, found, voiced specific concerns about how the vaccine may affect their periods.
“our youth are so connected and so highly informed that we are sometimes surprised,” she said, “in that they have oftentimes done far more research than an adult would have, or thought about things that we wouldn’t have expected or wouldn’t have thought of ourselves.”