Double Emancipation: Britney and the COVID Vaccine

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Double Emancipation: Britney and the COVID Vaccine – June 28, 2021

Britney Spears wants to be emancipated. So do a sizable number of teenagers across the country whose parents have pressed pause on their COVID vaccination. Never did I ever think I would be writing about Britney and the right to get vaccines in a single paragraph but there we have it, and I am pro both.

Britney has lived under the conservatorship of her father for the past 13 years, an arrangement stemming from her very public mental health crisis, which culminated in 2007 with late night head shaving caught on TMZ cameras. At the time, I was in the midst of a occupational pivot, trading a full-time pediatric practice for a stab at medical writing. Every career wrangler around me urged me to amplify my writer voice by stepping into the media doctor role. So I took a handful of assignments answering questions about things like arsenic in baby foods and toxins in sunscreens. But when called for the coveted gig of appearing on one of the big morning shows to talk about Britney’s spiral – that day evidenced by her driving with her baby perched on her lap rather than strapped safely behind her in a car seat – I didn’t just decline, I tagged out of the media game entirely. Yes, car seats save lives; but speaking about it in this particular context felt like I would be contributing to the ruin of at least one: Britney’s.

Not long after, a court granted Britney’s father the right to choose everything from how she spent her money to where she spent her time. She was 27 years old, the mother of two. Infantilization in the name of personal safety. Don’t get me wrong: Britney needed help making choices to keep herself safe and healthy. But should the sole arbiter of that help take the shape of a parent who catapulted her into the life that undid her? Britney was ordered to pay her dad close to $200,000 per year to assume this role, begging the question: should the pruner of her decision tree benefit financially from stepping back into his parenting role? And when, if ever, does this “parenting” end?

Fast forward to the summer of 2021, a moment of almost-post-pandemic reopening thanks, in large part, to vaccines. Over the past few weeks COVID has receded from the headlines, replaced in a surprising number of instances with stories about Britney. COVID’s click bait appeal dropped along with the case rate in the U.S. – infections have plunged 96% since January, when we saw a daily high of 300,000 cases (yes, on Jan 2 the reported number for just that day was 300,462). We still have about 12,000 daily positives in the U.S., mind you. But the overwhelmingly downward trend owes thanks to masking, social distancing, and mostly to the 153 million fully vaccinated adults in this country, with a nod to another 26 million who are half way there. Vaccination has completely upended COVID’s path of death and destruction, and if you don’t believe me, just compare what’s happening in the U.S. to places around the globe that have little or no access to vaccines like Paraguay, Columbia, and India.

In the same way that Britney is not free to choose her own fate at the moment, neither are many of the 24 million eligible teenagers in this country. Three months ago, the Pfizer vaccine was licensed for 16- and 17-year olds; six weeks ago the age limit dropped again, allowing jabs for kids between 12 and 15. But 40 states require that people under the age of 18 obtain parental consent before vaccination, and recent polls suggest that up to 70% of parents in the U.S. say it’s not going to happen for their kids, at least for a long while.

In the world of medicine, autonomy generally begins around age 18. That’s when kids (no longer really kids, but we don’t call them adults quite yet…) can consent to medical procedures and have full ownership of their medical records - parents must be granted permission by their 18+ year old offspring in order to see their files or be a part of medical decision-making. Eighteen is when people in this country are first able to vote and get a tattoo, though – side note – they can’t rent a car until 21 and pay a youth penalty fee until they’re 25. Before age 18, parents and guardians hold the keys to almost all medical decisions, emphasis on almost. Exceptions come in the form of emancipation, freeing minors from parental or guardian control. What gets someone medically emancipated before the age of 18 in this country? Laws vary from state to state, but the following things do it across the board: getting married; serving active duty status in the military; or living separately from a parent/guardian while able to provide financially for oneself. There’s also this thing called the “mature minor doctrine,” which basically acknowledges that teenagers who aren’t seeking emancipation can make good decisions for themselves and should be given that option. Most states don’t recognize it.

In this country, it has been a tough sell convincing some people of the virtues of vaccinating youngsters who tend not to get profoundly sick or die from COVID. Mass youth vaccine campaigns like the one against polio worked in large part because it was the kids who were getting so sick. With COVID, the relative sparing of the young set in a time of social media has simply added fuel to the fire of vaccine hesitant parents. Many of them, it turns out, have kids who aren’t as skeptical as they are – in fact, as described in detail in this New York Times piece, they tend to want to do their part and protect those around them. Plus, they want to hang with their friends unmasked! These kids and their parents live in separate echo chambers, a schism that becomes quite poignant in many parts of the country where accurately educated youth lack the legal means to protect themselves and others.

And so the simultaneous push to free Britney and free the teenagers who want to be vaccinated. Both see the impact of their choices – and their futures – clearly. Both are simply asking for the right to live their lives responsibly, without harming others. If that doesn’t make the case for emancipation, what does?