Parents are Hesitating to Get Their Kids Vaccinated Against COVID-19

The sudden COVID-19 outbreak gave the world its biggest shock! However, there is much support for the vaccination drive. The vaccines are considered about 90.7% effective for preventing ailments. But even then, not many parents are keen on getting their kids vaccinated because of their limited perceptions.

Today, several people in the United States think of the unvaccinated need to get incentives for getting vaccinated. According to a survey by MyBioSource, people in Alaska think they need to get paid $259 to take the vaccine. Kansas and Maryland think the amounts are $168 and $207, respectively.

The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) conducted a survey revealing that only 27% of the parents were keen to vaccinate their kids against the virus. On the other hand, close to 30% said that they wouldn’t vaccinate their kids at all. Also, another section of parents shared that they are going to wait, weigh and assess the situation before they take any decision.

Several vaccines have been doing well in the market and are also FDA-approved for infants. Some, however, are known for causing vomiting and diarrhea in young kids. Even though these side effects are less dangerous that the novel coronavirus, but there is scope for improvement in its effects.

However, the CDC reports that over 90% of kids in the United States, who are two years old, get immune through the injection against many ailments, including mumps, rubella, and measles. Nearly 93% of these kids have three or four injections recommended by doctors. Additionally, close to 95% of the kindergarteners have received the vaccines that are required by the state in 2020.

Hence, now comes the million-dollar question: Why are parents hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccine? For most people, the answer is associated with vaccine familiarity. There have been injections to keep kids secure from rubella, mumps, and measles since the 1960s. However, the fist vaccine to curb down the impacts of COVID-19 was developed a year back. Hence, the domain is uncharted. Also, parents today have ample data to read on social media that promotes doubts and mistrust concerning vaccine efficiency.

The key of all the worries

In recent times, the antivaccine movement is expanding and has been severely politicized. According to the KFF 2020 data, the reliability of sources like the CDC has declined to some extent, especially amongst conservatives. The studies published in the “American Politics Research and Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World” highlight that in comparison to the Democrats, the Republicans have an increasing scope for endorsing vaccine misinformation for the kids. However, medical experts don’t think that the pandemic political debate has a role to play in manipulating parents’ ideas about not getting their kids vaccinated.

The COVID-19 vaccines indeed have a political essence. One still has to see whether the vaccine is applicable to the 5 to 11 years old kids. It could be that what the world is witnessing is a usual hesitancy towards the vaccines, which is natural when you are inoculating the kid with the biological agent which you aren’t clear about.

It is usually the mothers who have more concerns. According to the COVID States Project October report, mothers tend to become more concerned about the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine. Based on the earlier outcomes of the projects, most mothers have stayed unwavering in expressing their concerns with zero casual inferences being made.

Being aware of some essential facts

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the root cause of parental fear is the absence of facts. Most parents today remain confused because of the misinformation being present. It wasn’t the situation when there was the varicella vaccine against chickenpox, that got marketed as Varivax, was available in the 1900s. The vaccine uptake was slow, which made the manufacturer introduce a campaign using a stark message stating that a couple of parents lost their kids to chickenpox. Before the advent of the vaccine, the ailment wasn’t considered severe and lethal.

Gradually, the company got better in creating this perception – that annually, a count of 75 to 100 kids lost their lives because of chickenpox. And this has made the parents become more aware and invest in ways to ensure this fatality can be averted. To date, some parents are of the notion that the COVID-19 vaccine got prepared because it was rushed. The vaccine is still under the Emergency Use Authorization and hasn’t been completely licensed by the FDA. Hence, it is always better for parents to have a word with the doctors to get a clear idea about the vaccine.

The truth is vaccines can’t stop your kid from getting infected by the COVID-19 virus . It can, however, bring down the suffering and the side effects to a great extent, so parents shouldn’t say no the vaccines.