COVID-19 vaccine uptake for children under five years old is not taking off like the Biden administration hoped it would.
Despite intense efforts from President Joe Biden himself on down to officials like Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky to sell parents on the shots, more of them say they will never get their kid vaccinated against the coronavirus than have already done so, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey.
“Parents who might be predisposed…said that lack of access was a significant barrier, a concern expressed by more Black and Hispanic parents than white parents. About 44 percent of Black parents worried about having to take time off from work…” https://t.co/OG1rMi2LAS
— Ubaka Ogbogu (@UbakaOgbogu)
Just 7% of parents surveyed said their child under five years old has already been vaccinated, more than one month after the CDC and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized and recommended a vaccine for that age group. Forty-three percent say they will never get their kid vaccinated against the virus under any circumstance. Another 13% said they would only do so if it were required for an activity such as school.
While the results were skewed by partisanship, with Republicans and Republican-leaners more likely to reject COVID-19 vaccination for their young kids, even Democrats and vaccinated parents were more likely not to want their child jabbed. Twenty-one percent of Democrats said they won’t get their child under five vaccinated versus 15% who already have, and 27% of vaccinated parents said they won’t versus 11% who already have. (RELATED: CDC Caught Using False Data To Recommend Kids’ COVID Vaccine)
Parents listed a lack of research, concern about side effects and vaccine safety as the top reasons not to want the vaccine for their toddler. Another factor is that many parents simply don’t think their kid needs a shot: 53% of parents of kids between six months and four years old said that the health risk associated with getting the COVID-19 vaccine is greater than the risk of getting the virus itself for kids.
“COVID doesn’t seem to affect them too much. They have gotten COVID before and got over it fine,” one Hispanic, Democrat mother from California told Kaiser.
Public health officials have made a strong push for toddlers to get vaccinated since the CDC and FDA greenlit Pfizer and Moderna’s shots last month. But America is isolated from most of its peers when it comes to COVID-19 policy for kids. As of now, only a handful of other countries are giving them the jabs.
* Article from: The Daily Caller