Mexican parents use injunctions to get kids vaccinated

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hundreds of parents in Mexico have resorted to filing for court injunctions to get coronavirus vaccines for their children after the government refused to consider vaccinating those under 18.

In the U.S. and other countries, childhood vaccinations are already underway, but Mexican officials have downplayed the risk for minors. That is despite the 613 deaths and 60,928 confirmed COVID-19 cases among people under 18 in Mexico to date.

About 15 parents have won the injunctions and got their children shots as the government presses schools to return to in-person classes Monday.

Alma Franco, a lawyer in the southern state of Oaxaca, was one of the first to seek vaccination for her children through the constitutional appeals known in Mexico as "amparos." Such appeals ask a judge to strike down, freeze or reverse a government action that may violate the plaintiff's rights.

Franco won the appeal and got a vaccine shot for her 12-year-old son, and then posted a copy of the appeal on social media so others could essentially copy and paste it and file their own.

“I am a mother, and I would not want any family to be in mourning because the Mexican government failed to defend the health of children,” said Franco, 48. She said an estimated 200 parents have followed her path to try to win vaccines.

Local media reported that 15 such injunctions have been granted so far and 31 rejected.

Ingrid Nattalie, a 13-year-old middle school student in the northern city of Mexicali, across the border from Calexico, California, was also got a shot, something her family's lawyer, Jorge Lizarraga, called “a legal triumph.”

Mexico's medical health safety board has approved Pfizer shots for use in people as young as 12. But in Mexico, only the government is currently able to...