Vaccines and Divorce Mediation

Divorcing parents can disagree about many things, particularly when a pandemic wholly disrupts the norms of behavior and practice.

Vaccines are now being distributed throughout the United States. As a divorce mediator, I anticipate that there will be new disagreements among certain parents whether their children should be vaccinated. This is compounded by the realisation that we live in an era where the credibility of our institutions has been undermined, e.g., the FDA and the CDC.

Mistrust of vaccines has been growing in recent times. Some objections are without foundation and the product of conspiracy theories or lack of research. Others are in good faith e.g., religious objections or reasonable fear of the side effects for a child. The divorce mediator must also anticipate dealing with issues such as a parent refusing to accept the vaccine and the other parent retaliating by refusing access to the child. And what happens when a parent wants to travel with a child who has not been vaccinated? Can an unvaccinated child have playdates with children who have been vaccinated? The divorce mediator must be prepared to respond to these new and challenging issues.

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