GREENSBORO, N.C. — With the FDA advisory panel recommending Pfizer’s covid vaccine for children ages five to 11, parents will have a big decision to make.
But what happens if the parents are divorced and don’t agree on their child getting the vaccine?
“It’s picking up, I’ve already had cases where this issue has come up,” Family Attorney Samuele Viscuso with Seth M. Woodall & Associates in Eden said.
Viscuso works cases in Guilford County, Rockingham County, and surrounding districts.
He said if there is no custody order in place regarding minor children, both parents by default can do whatever they choose when deciding if their child will get a covid vaccine.
If a custody order is in place, he said it comes down to who has legal custody of the child or children.
“Legal custody here in North Carolina at least means which parent has the authority to make legal life decisions for the minor children,” Viscuso explained.
“So, where they go to school, what type of religious practices that they have, what type of medical treatments that they receive, what’s appropriate. Those are the decisions that can be made when you have legal custody.”
If parents have joint legal custody, Viscuso said both parents need to agree.
In North Carolina, if those parents can’t come to an agreement, he said they can file a motion and ask a judge to make the decision for them, but the decision could take a while.
“Guilford County has historically been backlogged as it is and covid made it really, really bad,” Viscuso said.
“I’ve got cases that were filed around the initiation of covid just to have a custody hearing that has still not been heard by the courts.”
His advice is to try to keep the situation out of court.
“Try to talk to the other person that’s involved, try to resolve this outside of court,” Viscuso said.
“You’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of grief trying to go through this process and once you put it in a judge’s hands, you no longer have control over the situation.”
He said parenting coordinators can be appointed to serve as a tiebreaker and allow divorced parents to sidestep going before a judge.
Whatever parents choose to do, Viscuso said it should be in the best interest of the child.