There has been a lot of public outcry from parents who have expressed their displeasure with COVID-19’s slow rollout and a lengthy permission process.
However, a new KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor study found that only 18 percent of parents with children under the age of 5 said they were eager to get their child vaccinated immediately.
Some 38 percent of parents plan to wait to see how the vaccine works for others, while 27 percent of parents say they will “definitely not” vaccinate their child, and another 11 percent say they will only vaccinate their child if it is absolutely necessary.
More than half of parents indicated they don’t feel well-informed on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines for children under the age of 5.
Pfizer said on Tuesday that it now aims to review and submit data for its three-dose pediatric vaccine by late May or early June, with the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control considering the submission shortly after.
At an investors conference on Monday, Pfizer’s Chief Scientific Officer and President, Worldwide Research Development and Medical, Mikael Dolsten said, “We have been working with urgency to generate data.” He added that the company recognizes the “parents of younger children and health care providers have been waiting for an effective vaccine.”
Moderna announced last week that it had submitted an application to the FDA to have its vaccine approved for children aged 6 months to 6 years.
“I think for these little children, they really represent an unmet medical need,” Paul Burton, Moderna’s chief medical officer, told ABC News last week. “I would be hopeful that the review will go on quickly and rigorously — but if it’s approvable, this will be made available to these little children as quickly as possible.”
As officials seek to alleviate parental hesitation, Burton said there will undoubtedly be a “continuing challenge ahead.”
A similar pattern can be noticed in parental hesitation while their children are small, as can be seen with parents of older kids and teens. According to federal data, just under 26 million children aged 5 to 17 — or slightly less than half of those eligible — are entirely unvaccinated. Overall, 43.2 percent of eligible children have received all of their vaccines, but just 28.8 percent of children aged 5 to 11 have received all of their vaccines.
According to KFF, just under one-third of parents of children aged 5 to 17 said they will “definitely not” have their children vaccinated.
The FDA’s delays in assessing pediatric vaccine data, on the other hand, did not appear to be a deterrent to parents, according to the poll. Sixty-four percent of parents said the delay had no impact on their faith in the vaccines’ safety for this age group, while 22 percent said it had increased their confidence in the vaccine’s safety for small children. Only 13 percent of parents said the delay made them feel “less confident.”
The ongoing campaign to persuade parents to vaccinate their children comes as pediatric COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations continue to climb.
According to recent research released on Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, COVID-19 infection rates among children in the United States have increased for the third week in a row.
Last week, 53,000 new kid COVID-19 cases were reported, a 61 percent increase from two weeks prior. Despite this, total numbers are still much fewer than they were at other times of the pandemic. However, many Americans who take at-home tests do not submit their findings, so daily case totals are likely to be substantially higher than officially reported statistics, according to experts.
In the last two weeks, hospital admissions have increased by around 21 percent, with around 120 virus-positive children admitted each day.
Not only parents are wary about vaccinations; vaccine opposition has dogged the rollout from the start. In the United States, 54.6 million people who are eligible for vaccination are still unvaccinated.
People’s eagerness to receive their booster dose has lessened in recent months, as those who are most eager to get the shot have previously been vaccinated.
27 percent of vaccinated people who had not yet received a booster dose indicated they will only get the extra vaccine “if required,” while 23 percent said they will “definitely not” get one. Nearly a third of respondents (30 percent) said they plan to obtain a booster dose “as soon as they can,” while 18 percent said they want to “wait to see” before receiving one.
There is also a big difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to getting vaccinated and getting boosters. Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans to report getting vaccinated and getting boosters, according to the KFF study.
With regard to those whose initial vaccinations or previous COVID-19 infections have not been re-vaccinated, 56 percent of respondents stated that they believe they are fully protected. Others stated that they just do not want to get it, while 39 percent believe boosters are ineffective because some persons who have been vaccinated are still infected.
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