Trepidation: Some parents hesitant about kids getting COVID-19 shots.
FDA expected to approve Pfizer shots for 12 and up
Kim Hagood, 50, was elated when she heard the Food and Drug Administration in the coming days probably will authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for youths 12 to 15 years old.
Although her 10-year-old son, Blake, wouldn’t qualify, the company said during a quarterly earnings call Tuesday it will seek authorization for children ages 2 to 11 by September, according to The New York Times.
“If he can get that shot by the end of the year, I would be thrilled,” said Hagood, who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in April in Birmingham, Alabama. “I don’t want to take the chance on my child being the one sick (from COVID-19) and ending up in the hospital.”
Fifty-eight percent of parents or caregivers said in a survey in March that they would get their children vaccinated against COVID-19, a drop from the 71% who said they would get vaccinated themselves, according to a report by ParentsTogether, a national organization that provides education and resources for families.
A survey published in the April edition of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Vaccine Monitor found 32% of parents said they’ll wait to see how the vaccine works before getting their child vaccinated, and 19% said they definitely wouldn’t get their child vaccinated.
People are naturally more cautious with their children, said Mary Carol Burkhardt, a pediatrician and associate division director for primary care at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
“We’re certainly seeing both sides of the coin,” she said. “Some parents want to be first in line and want to get their kids protected ... on the other side, we have a lot of families who are not hesitant but don’t want to be first.”
In the ParentsTogether survey, parents said they were concerned about short-term side effects, unknown longterm side effects, the speed of vaccine development and the lack of opportunity for long-term studies.
The study found Black parents were especially hesitant: 26% of respondents said they would “probably not” or “definitely not” get their children vaccinated compared with white parents (15%) or Hispanic parents (13%).
Parents’ hesitancy appears to stem from uncertainty rather than outright opposition, health experts said, which leaves room for pediatricians to engage parents with more information and education.
“It’s going to take some time for all parents to become comfortable with the vaccine, but what I’m hoping people understand ... is that this becomes part of a way to protect our children and community,” said Bethany Robertson, co-founder and co-director of ParentsTogether.
Schools may play an important role in getting COVID-19 shots in arms the way they do for other childhood vaccines, though schools don’t mandate children to get vaccinated because the coronavirus vaccines are only authorized by the FDA for emergency use.
Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, submitted an application to the FDA Friday for full approval of their COVID-19 vaccine. Although it’s not clear how long the FDA will take to review the data the companies will submit over the coming weeks, full approval may encourage schools to mandate vaccinations.