Parents are still hesitant to get their children vaccinated amid COVID spread

Public health officials continue to stress the importance of vaccinations as COVID continues to spread. But a new poll shows that some parents are still holding off getting their children vaccinated. We talked about it with Dr. Swapna Reddy, of ASU’s College of Health Solutions.

According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, “about half of all parents are hesitant to get their 12 to 17 year old children vaccinated. So, those numbers have…improved a little bit in the summer, but we still have only about 41% of that age, that teenage group,” Reddy said.

Reddy continued to mention that this age group is the lowest percentage to have received the COVID vaccine.

She said that there are three common main concerns when it comes to parents getting their children vaccinated. One concern is the long-term effects of the vaccine, another is the short-term effects, meaning how their child will feel right after they receive the shot and concerns around fertility.

Reddy believes this misinformation surrounding fertility problems related to the vaccine gained a lot of traction over social media. But it’s “really important to note that there really is absolutely no evidence to support that there are any fertility issues associated with the COVID-19 vaccine,” Reddy said.

“The Delta variant seems to be, you know, very efficacious and spreading amongst this age group. We’re seeing more kids, not just getting the virus but hospitalized. So, [we] really need to break through these layers of disinformation and make it more accessible, especially if there are certain populations that need to understand that the vaccine is free,” Reddy said.