Despite the recent wave of COVID-19 infections, most parents are reluctant to get their young children vaccinated against the virus, a new survey finds.
Just 7% of parents with children ages 6 months to 4 years have gotten them a vaccine since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines for that age group in June, researchers with the Kaiser Family Foundation found.
More than 40% of parents said they will "definitely not" vaccinate their young children, according to the survey. More than half of those surveyed believe the vaccine is a greater risk than the virus.
While many young children who have had COVID-19 experience mild symptoms, doctors say that some have gotten extremely ill and have had to be hospitalized.
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"We have children that were previously completely, well, athletic adolescents who are completely incapacitated, just as you hear in adults. And we really need the resources, both with respect to funding for research and actual boots on the ground, funding for clinical time for these specialists," Dr. Roberta DeBiasi, with Children's National Hospital, told News4.
Another 10% of parents who took the KFF survey said they want to get their kids vaccinated as soon as possible, while others, including a quarter (27%) want to “wait and see” how it works in other young children and one in eight (13%) said they would only get their child vaccinated if it were required for school or child care.
