Poll Shows Parents Reluctant To Get Their Kids Vaccinated For COVID

Just one-third of parents polled plan to have their children vaccinated

Back in February, a poll showed that 40 percent of parents with children in K-12 public schools didn’t know if they’d vaccinate their kids against COVID-19, with 22 percent of the parents polled refusing the vaccine for their kids completely. Since then, not only has COVID-19 vaccine eligibility opened up to young people over 16 years in many parts of the country, but it has been reported that the Pfizer vaccine is mere days away from receiving clearance from the FDA for children 12 to 15 years old. But, according to a new poll, parents are still hesitant to get their kids vaccinated for COVID-19.

According to a new survey published in the April edition of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Vaccine Monitor, just 30 percent of parents of children ages 12 to 15 say they will have their children vaccinated against the virus as soon as they’re eligible for the vaccine, 23 percent said they won’t have their children vaccinated, and 26 percent said they were unsure and will wait to see how the vaccine is working. Further, 18 percent said they plan to get their child vaccinated if their school requires it. More than 2,000 adults were surveyed from April 15-29.

As for parents of children under 18, the stats are relatively the same: 29 percent said they’ll get their child vaccinated “right away,” 32 percent will wait to see how the vaccine is working, 15 percent will only get their child vaccinated if their school requires it, and 19 percent “definitely won’t” get their child vaccinated.

“Perhaps unsurprisingly, parents’ intentions for vaccinating their kids largely line up with their own intentions for getting the COVID-19 vaccine themselves,” the authors state.

Among parents who have already received at least one dose of the vaccine or want it as soon as possible, three-fourths say they will either get their children vaccinated right away (48 percent) or will wait a while to see how it’s working (29 percent). Among parents who “want to wait and see” for their own vaccination, 63 percent say they will also wait and see before getting their child vaccinated. Similarly, 58 percent of parents who say they will “definitely not get vaccinated for COVID-19 themselves or will do so only if required” say they will definitely not vaccinate their children.

“We’re in a new stage of talking about vaccine demand,” Mollyann Brodie, executive vice president of Kaiser’s Public Opinion and Survey Research Program, tells The New York Times. “There’s not going to be a single strategy to increase demand across everyone who is left. There will be have to be a lot of individually targeted efforts. The people still on the fence have logistical barriers, information needs, and lots don’t yet know they are eligible. Each strategy might move a small number of people to get vaccinated, but all together, that could matter a lot.”